courtesy : Idioms & Phrases
Courtesy title
- a title assumed by a person, or popularly conceded to him, to which he has no valid claim; as, the courtesy title of Lord prefixed to the names of the younger sons of noblemen.
Webster 1913
Initiate tenant by courtesy
(Law) , said of a husband who becomes such in his wife's estate of inheritance by the birth of a child, but whose estate is not consummated till the death of the wife.
Webster 1913
To strain courtesy
- to go beyond what courtesy requires; to insist somewhat too much upon the precedence of others; often used ironically. Shak.
