suitor
verbEtymology From Middle English sutour, from Anglo-Norman suytour, seuter, from Late Latin secutor (“follower, pursuer”).
1
To play the suitor; to woo; to make love.
suitor
nounUS /ˈsutɚ/ · UK /ˈsuːtə/
Etymology From Middle English sutour, from Anglo-Norman suytour, seuter, from Late Latin secutor (“follower, pursuer”).
1
One who pursues someone, especially a woman, for a romantic relationship or marriage; a wooer; one who falls in love with or courts someone.
- (Notice that "Lysias" begins from the realistic assumption that an attractive young man with many suitors will "gratify" one of them, the only question being which. Rightly or wrongly, he treats the question, "Shall I at all?" as already resolved.)1999, Martha Craven Nussbaum, Sex and Social Justice, →ISBN, page 316:
2
Broadly A person or organization that expresses an interest in working with, or taking over, another.
- […] and Mortimer asserted he had no shortage of suitors ready, willing, and able to make acquisition loans […]2016, Gary D. McGugan, Three Weeks Less a Day, page 43:
- The Betaville blog wrote earlier this week about market speculation that Adevinta was attracting takeover interest, without naming the suitors.2023 September 21, Silas Brown, Dinesh Nair, Swetha Gopinath, “Blackstone, Permira Explore Bid for eBay-Backed Adevinta”, in Bloomberg.com:
3
Law A party to a suit or litigation.
4
One who sues, petitions, solicits, or entreats; a petitioner.
- Derived terms
- cosuitor, suitoress, suitorless, suitorship, suitress