Word.ws English Dictionary

courtsey

courtsey is the archaic spelling of curtsey.

Meaning of curtsey

Noun

curtsey (plural curtsies or curtseys)

  1. A small bow, generally performed by a woman or a girl, where she crosses the shin of one leg behind the calf of her other leg and briefly bends her knees to lower her body in deference.
    • I refused to make so much as a curtsey for the passing nobles, as I am a staunch egalitarian.

See all 2 meanings of curtsey

Forms of courtsey

pluralcourtseys

Questions about courtsey

What is courtsey the archaic spelling of?
Courtsey is the archaic spelling of curtsey.

Words near courtsey in the dictionary

  1. courts of second instance
  2. courts of world opinion
  3. courts-baron
  4. courts-leet
  5. courts-martial
  6. courtsey
  7. courtseys
  8. courtship
  9. courtship display
  10. courtships
  11. courtside

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: courtsey (page history and authors); curtsey (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “courtsey.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/courtsey. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.