[f. FORE- pref. + COURT sb.] The court or enclosed space in front of a building, the first or outer court.
1535. Coverdale, Ezek. x. 5. Yee and the sounde of the Cherubins wynges was herde in to the forecourte, like as it had bene the voyce of the almightie God, when he speaketh.
1668. Evelyn, Diary, 14 Aug. His Majesty was pleas’d to grant me a lease of a slip of ground out of Brick Close to enlarge my fore court.
1814. Scott, Wav., xv. Waverley repaired to the fore-court, as it was called.
1865. Eliza Meteyard, Life J. Wedgwood, I. 252. The ivy-clad cottage, with its forecourt or garden standing to the front, the kilns and sheds behind.
1884. C. Marvin, Centr. Asia, 28. Blessing then the Khan, the traveller withdrew, and hurried home through the crowded forecourt and bazaar.
fig. 1867. J. H. Stirling, De Quincey and Coleridge upon Kant, in Fortn. Rev., 1 Oct., 377. These to him (with Ontology, but only as fore-court) constituted Metaphysic.
