base court

French basse-cour.

base court (plural base courts)

1. The secondary, inferior, outdoor or rear courtyard of a large house, palace or castle.
   • 1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):

     My Lord, in the base Court he doth attend
     To speake with you, may it please you to come downe.

   • 1725–1726, Homer, “(please specify the book or chapter of the Odyssey)”, in [William Broome, Elijah Fenton, Alexander Pope], transl., The Odyssey of Homer. […], London: […] Bernard Lintot, →OCLC:

     Once more the palace set in fair array,
     To the base court the females take their way;
     There compass'd close between the dome and wall
     (Their life's last scene) they trembling wait their fall.

   • 1897, William Holden Hutton, Hampton Court:

     Through the great gate, with its groined ceiling, we pass into the first or Base Court. This at once strikes the visitor as being very low on the north and south in proportion to the high Gate-house and Clock-tower.

2. (historical, law) An inferior court of law, not a court of record.

• “base-court”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

• obscurate