[a. F. cortège, formerly cortége, 16th c. ad. It. corteggio ‘a traine of followers that attend one as it were to court him,’ deriv. of corte COURT, ‘also a prince’s whole familie or traine’ (Florio).] A train of attendants, or of people in procession.
1679. Evelyn, Mem. (1857), II. 130. To take the air in Hyde-Park, where was a glorious cortège.
1816. Keatinge, Trav. (1817), I. 193. Accompanied by a guard of honour, no very commodious cortege at best.
1828. Miss Mitford, Village, Ser. III. 243. A cortége of labourers, and harvest-waggons.
1864. Kirk, Chas. Bold, II. IV. ii. 329. His ambassadors followed in the wake of the imperial cortége.
