A court-martial is a trial held by a military court. Face a court-martial.
The plural is courts-martial, since the adjective comes second in the old French order. A court-martial applies military law, which covers offences no civilian court knows about.
1nouncourt-martialA trial held by a military court.
“The court-martial lasted four days and cleared him entirely.”
court-martial is a trial.
French
cour martiale
English
court martial
English, today
court-martial
court martial A French cour martiale, hence the unusual order of an adjective following the noun.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA