[f. TENNIS sb. + COURT sb. 4.]
1. The enclosed quadrangular area, or building, in which the game of tennis is played.
1564. in Willis & Clark, Cambridge (1886), I. 143. Boards to make a tennyse court £1. 0. 0.
1611. Cotgr., Blouse, a close Tennis court, or a Tennis court in a hall, hauing a house on either side to serue on.
1630. in Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot. (1896), XXX. 57. The tinneis courtis thairof and all utheris houses.
1763. Brit. Mag., IV. 55. It was agreed to build a new theatre, where the Tennis-court then stood, in Lincoln’s-inn-fields.
1791. Mackintosh, Vind. Gallicæ, Wks. 1846, III. 24. They were summoned by their President to a Tennis-Court, where they were reduced to hold their assembly.
1878. Julian Marshall, Annals of Tennis, 114. One of the greatest obstacles to the spreading of the love of Tennis has always been the scarcity of Tennis-courts. [Ibid., 113 Their number [in England] at the present moment is twenty-one.]
fig. 1605. Earl Stirling, Alexand. Trag., V. i. I thinke the world is but a Tenis-court where Fortune doth play States, tosse men for Balls.
1738. G. Lillo, Marina, I. ii. Winds and waters, In their vast tennis-court, have, as a ball, Used me to make them sport.
Comb. 1597. Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., II. ii. 21. But that the Tennis-Court-keeper knowes better then I.
a. 1637. B. Jonson, Eng. Gram., viii., note Sæpè tria coagmentantur nomina, ut, a foot-ball-player, a tennis-court-keeper.
2. The plot of ground prepared and marked out for lawn-tennis.
1886. ‘Rita,’ My Lady Coquette, i. I wanted to see the tennis-courts made.
