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Reader question: If a song “managed to reach the U.K. Top Ten and hold court for over a year”, what does it mean? What does “hold court” mean exactly? My comments: It means that the song in question became one of the most popular songs one time in the United Kingdom and remained popular for a while (over a year). It was once ranked among the best ten songs in the country. The Top Ten is a chart that lists the 10 songs that has sold the most copies in the past week (or month, year). Reaching the Top Ten therefore means a song is among the cream at the top. Hold court? “Hold court” originally refers to a king holding a meeting with courtiers or members of his court, the royal court that is. As you can imagine, when the king holds court, he presides over it, dominates the proceedings and is always the center of attention. Similarly, a judge presiding over a criminal court is described as holding court also. Here, likewise the judge is the central figure, the big authority and most important person in the whole courtroom. And when he speaks giving his verdict or final judgment, everyone obeys him – or at least they’re supposed to do so. Anyways, as a metaphor, holding court becomes synonymous with anyone whose presence commands everybody’s attention in a meeting room or elsewhere. For example, someone conducting a news conference can be described as holding court for reporters because here this someone is the central figure. He or she is literally surrounded by reporters who laps up every word he/she has to say without fail. | 
