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Glite Dictionary
tourist court

tourist court

7.7
A small roadside hotel or group of cabins where you can park near your room
  • noun
  • /ˈtʊərɪst kɔrt/
  • Archaic
translation icon : motel
  • With strip expansion, an increasing number of tourist courts and motels aggregate along suburban stretches of the highway.

Examples

  • At the tourist court, he avoided the cafe and went to bed early, putting himself to sleep thinking of his wife, painfully and deliberately.

    Fiction book (1991)

  • "Do you stay in tourist courts every night?" she asked, wide-eyed.

    Fiction book (1991)

  • When she had called him at the tourist court, she had not been confident about giving directions, seeming unsure of where her own house was.

    Fiction book (1991)

  • After a long day of driving, we decided to spend the night at a tourist court along the highway.

  • In the 1950s, many families would stay in a tourist court for a convenient and affordable vacation.

  • She felt nostalgic as she remembered summer trips spent at a cozy tourist court with her parents.

Synonyms

hotel
vstourist court
∞ 1.0

A building where people pay to stay and get meals and other services

is the narrower historic roadside form focused on parking beside rooms
motel
vstourist court
579 1.2

A small hotel by the road that has parking outside each room

is the historic name for this twentieth century roadside lodging
court
vstourist court
  • Archaic
10 4.8

A small hotel where rooms open onto a parking area

is an older, historical term for that motorist lodging style
motor lodge
vstourist court
  • US
2 3.6

A small hotel by a road with parking spaces in front of rooms

is a slightly older phrasing for this motorist oriented lodging type
motor hotel
vstourist court
  • US
1 3.4

A hotel for people traveling by car with rooms that open onto a parking lot

is the older label used especially in earlier twentieth century contexts
motor inn
vstourist court
  • US
1 3.4

A hotel with parking next to each room for drivers

is the historical term commonly used in the early twentieth century
caravan inn
vstourist court
8.0

An inn with a large open yard that shelters travellers and animals

is focused on roadside parking near individual cabins rather than large courtyards
accommodation house
vstourist court
3.8

A building that offers rooms for people to stay for a short time

is specific to roadside motorist parking near rooms, not general lodging

Surface Forms

tourist court singular
tourist courts plural

Morphology

tourist + court

The components 'tourist' (visitor) and 'court' (an enclosed area or group of buildings) give a plausible clue that this is a place associated with tourists, but the specific historical lodging sense (roadside hotel/group of cabins with parking) is a specialized, partly lexicalized meaning of 'court' (compare 'motor court') that is not the prototypical sense known by most learners. Because the overall meaning is partially derivable but requires cultural/lexical knowledge or exposure, it is best classified as semi-transparent.

Etymology

The noun tourist court comes from early road trips. It described a small court of cabins for tourists, with a place to park a car right outside, so the phrase now means a simple 'roadside hotel with parking'.