noun

• (countable, uncountable) The act of paying court, that is, demonstrating such politeness and respect as is traditionally given at a court (“a formal assembly of a sovereign's retinue”).
  "Our ſelfe and Buſhie, / Obſerued his courtſhip to the common people, / How he did ſeeme to diue into their harts, / With humble and familiar courteſie, / What reuerence he did throw away on ſlaues, [...]"
• (countable, uncountable) The act of paying court, that is, demonstrating such politeness and respect as is traditionally given at a court (“a formal assembly of a sovereign's retinue”).
  "More validitie, / More honourable ſtate, more courtſhip liues / In carrion flyes, than Romeo: they may ſeaze / On the white wonder of faire Iuliets skinne, / And ſteale immortall kiſſes from her lips; / But Romeo may not, he is baniſhed."
• (countable, uncountable) The act of paying court, that is, demonstrating such politeness and respect as is traditionally given at a court (“a formal assembly of a sovereign's retinue”).
  "Theſe bellowing exploſions [of the bittern] are chiefly heard from the beginning of ſpring to the end of autumn; and, however awful they may ſeem to us, are the calls to courtſhip, or of connubial felicity."
• (countable, uncountable) The act of paying court, that is, demonstrating such politeness and respect as is traditionally given at a court (“a formal assembly of a sovereign's retinue”).
  "His head grows fevered, and his pulse / The quick successive throbs convulse; / In vain from side to side he throws / His form, in courtship of repose; [...]"