How to Use courtesan in a Sentence

courtesan

noun

• This is Sadaf Jafar, who stepped into the pretty decent-sized role of Bibbo, the maid who runs the home of the courtesan.
  — Isaac Chotiner, The New Yorker, 7 Dec. 2020
• In 1890s France a courtesan falls in love with a young writer but strings along a duke who can finance improvements to the night spot.
  — Los Angeles Times, 4 Oct. 2019
• In that scene, a courtesan challenges an emperor in court by declaring her love for a prince.
  — New York Times, 5 Feb. 2022
• On one side of the street, azaleas — official shrub of the Mid-Atlantic — were just starting to peep out, each blossom a courtesan’s sly smile.
  — John Kelly, Washington Post, 29 Apr. 2018
• As the maid in Manet’s Olympia, Laure is presenting a large bouquet of flowers sent by a client of the naked courtesan who lies on a flotilla of white cushions.
  — Dodie Kazanjian, Vogue, 10 Oct. 2018
• That is some kind of ultimate 21st-century courtesan thing to have said.
  — Bruce Sterling, WIRED, 19 Feb. 2008
• One was a courtesan, the other a divorcée; both flouted the conventions of their milieux.
  — Adam Davidson, The New Yorker, 8 Mar. 2017
• This is the story of a lonely, widowed businessman, a courtesan, 1700s London, and a mermaid.
  — Teresa M. Hanafin, BostonGlobe.com, 4 June 2023
• The pic, now in post, is directed by French actress and filmmaker Maïwenn, who also plays the role of the titular courtesan, Madame du Barry.
  — Nick Vivarelli, Variety, 12 Jan. 2023
• Elisa has recently been orphaned for a second time by the death of her guardian, Rosaria, a minor courtesan who took her in after her parents’ untimely deaths.
  — Jess Bergman, The New Yorker, 8 Nov. 2023
• Casanova finally met his match in London, in the person of the courtesan Marianne de Charpillon.
  — Cate McQuaid, BostonGlobe.com, 6 July 2018
• Kikugawa Eizan’s print from around 1830 depicts the courtesan Yoyoyama swiveling to show off the white-on-black brush painting of bamboo that fills the back of her garment, complete with the artist’s signature seals.
  — Lee Lawrence, WSJ, 27 Feb. 2021
• Welcome to Cannes, where a period drama about an 18th-century courtesan has somehow become the single most scandalous thing to happen to the French film fest in a decade.
  — David Fear, Rolling Stone, 17 May 2023
• He was raised by his mother, a courtesan who amassed a fortune before retiring from her sensual labors.
  — Michael Lapointe, The New Yorker, 15 Nov. 2022
• The gorgeously gilded opera house was a perfect environment to watch the trials and tragedy of the courtesan Violetta Valéry.
  — New York Times, 11 May 2018
• She's pretended to be a gypsy, a courtesan, an aristocrat.
  — Town & Country, 6 Feb. 2023
• Violetta Valéry has it all as Paris’ most admired courtesan.
  — San Francisco Chronicle, 1 Nov. 2022
• In his famous years as a Hollywood courtesan, the movie captures the man as a welcome relief from the oppressive and conservative moral conduct of the industry.
  — Los Angeles Times, 16 Oct. 2019
• Along with 13 pairs of courtesan-like heel-less shoes, including ones Tatehana created for Lady Gaga, are sculptural geisha-style hairpins and samurai sword blades.
  — oregonlive, 6 Oct. 2019
• Scholars had known little about the mural, which includes images of Whitney, the founder of the museum that bears her name; Mr. Cushing’s wife, Ethel; and assorted courtesans, musicians and slaves.
  — Eve M. Kahn, New York Times, 6 Feb. 2018
• The rivalry between Wells’s daughters, Emily and Charlotte, the former a virgin, the latter a high-society courtesan.
  — Viv Groskop, Newsweek, 21 Mar. 2017
• By her early 20s, Bernhardt—the daughter of a Dutch Jewish courtesan—had realized her passion for performing.
  — Teresa Nowakowski, Smithsonian Magazine, 15 May 2023
• The additional characters include enough courtesans, soldiers and, yes, eunuchs to give Wilde Lake a wild population boost for the duration of this show.
  — Mike Giuliano, Howard County Times, 22 Mar. 2018
• The popular comedy incorporates music, dance and mime, in a story about a humble sardine seller and his love for the most glamorous courtesan in Kyoto.
  — oregonlive, 25 May 2022
• And none of them are playing scientists, martial artists, assassins, or courtesans — the kinds of roles Asian and Asian-American actors are frequently reduced to playing.
  — Alex Abad-Santos, Vox, 10 Aug. 2018
• From his teens onward, Simenon had enjoyed the company of prostitutes, and there’s rarely an unsympathetic streetwalker, call girl, bar girl, dance-hall girl, mistress, or courtesan to be found in his books.
  — Vince Passaro, Harper's magazine, 22 July 2019
• Perhaps Lady Castlerosse might have been something other than a society courtesan.
  — Judith Martin, New York Times, 11 Oct. 2017
• Hannity, as a Trump courtesan with a giant cable and radio audience, is a newsmaker.
  — The Hive, 28 Mar. 2017
• But devising the piece, and then re-imagining it for the Broadway stage production, was initially a feat as seemingly foolhardy as romancing a courtesan.
  — Maureen Lee Lenker, EW.com, 28 May 2021
• It’s a risqué comedy drama based on the memoirs of real-life 19th-century British courtesan Harriette Wilson.
  — San Diego Union-Tribune, 17 May 2022

Last Updated: 27 Jun 2024