consort

Borrowed from Middle French, ultimately from Latin cōnsors.

• (noun)
  • (Received Pronunciation) enPR: kŏn'sôt, IPA^(key): /ˈkɒnsɔːt/
  • (US) enPR: kän'sôrt, IPA^(key): /ˈkɑnsɔɹt/

  • Audio (US), noun

    (file)

• (verb)
  • (Received Pronunciation) enPR: kənsôt', IPA^(key): /kənˈsɔːt/
  • (US) enPR: kənsôrt', IPA^(key): /kənˈsɔɹt/

  • Audio (US), verb

    (file)

consort (countable and uncountable, plural consorts)

1. The spouse of a monarch.
2. A husband, wife, companion or partner.
   • Dryden

     He single chose to live, and shunned to wed, / Well pleased to want a consort of his bed.

   • Thackeray

     The consort of the queen has passed from this troubled sphere.

   • Darwin

     the snow-white gander, invariably accompanied by his darker consort

3. A ship accompanying another.
4. (uncountable) Association or partnership.
   • Atterbury

     Take it singly, and it carries an air of levity; but, in consort with the rest, has a meaning quite different.

5. A group or company, especially of musicians playing the same type of instrument.
   • Spenser

     In one consort there sat / Cruel revenge and rancorous despite, / Disloyal treason, and heart-burning hate.

   • Herbert

     Lord, place me in thy consort.

6. (obsolete) Harmony of sounds; concert, as of musical instruments.
   • Spenser

     To make a sad consort, / Come, let us join our mournful song with theirs.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Milton to this entry?)

• (husband, wife, companion, partner): Thesaurus:spouse, companion, escort
• (association, partnership): association, partnership
• (group of musicians): band, group

consort (third-person singular simple present consorts, present participle consorting, simple past and past participle consorted)

1. (intransitive) To associate or keep company (with).
   • 1610, Alexander Cooke, Pope Joane, in William Oldys, editor, The Harleian Miscellany: or, A Collection of Scarce, Curious, and Entertaining Pamphlets and Tracts, as well in Manuscript as in Print, Found in the Late Earl of Oxford's Library: Interspersed with Historical, Political, and Critical Notes: With a Table of the Contents, and an Alphabetical Index, volume IV, London: Printed for T[homas] Osborne, in Gray's-Inn, 1744, OCLC 5325177; republished as John Maltham, editor, The Harleian Miscellany; or, A Collection of Scarce, Curious, and Entertaining Pamphlets and Tracts, as well in Manuscript as in Print, Found in the Late Earl of Oxford's Library, Interspersed with Historical, Political, and Critical Notes, volume IV, London: Printed for R. Dutton, 1808–1811, OCLC 30776079, page 95:

     If there bee any lasie fellow, any that cannot away with worke, any that would wallow in pleasures, hee is hastie to be priested. And when hee is made one, and has gotten a benefice, he consorts with his neighbour priests, who are altogether given to pleasures; and then both hee, and they, live, not like Christians, but like epicures; drinking, eating, feasting, and revelling, till the cow come home, as the saying is.

   • Dryden:

     Which of the Grecian chiefs consorts with thee?

   • 1961, J. A. Philip, "Mimesis in the Sophistês of Plato," Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association, vol. 92, p. 457,

     Being itself inferior and consorting with an inferior faculty it begets inferior offspring.

2. (intransitive) To be in agreement.

• (associate or keep company): hang out (slang)
• (be in agreement): agree, concur
• (associate or unite in company with): associate, hang out (slang)

• Croston, crotons

Borrowed from Latin consors, consortem.

• IPA^(key): /kɔ̃.sɔʁ/

consort f (plural consorts)

1. consort
2. (plural only, preceded by et, slightly derogatory) minions, associates; the likes

   Facebook, Myspace et consorts.

   Facebook, Myspace and the likes.

• “consort” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).