hold court
In real, traceable use. Part of the curated seed collection; community review is coming.
Meaning · English
Be the centre of attention amidst a crowd.
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
For someone who so obviously thrives on holding court, Shaun is neither ranting nor railing, the bragging and bullshit which characteristically pepper his interviews are conspicuous by their absence.
So Shaun got to hold court, shoot his mouth off and was rarely challenged for his dodgy comments.
British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Figurative class: Metaphor (PIE-English corpus, CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-31).
Common questions
What does “hold court” mean?
Be the centre of attention amidst a crowd.
Is “hold court” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.