Court without officials to begin with (3)
I believe the answer is:
woo
'court' is the definition.
(both can mean to romance someone)
'without officials to begin with' is the wordplay.
'without' becomes 'wo' (abbreviation of 'without', normally with a slash).
'to begin with' suggests taking the first letters.
The first letter of 'officials' is 'o'.
'wo'+'o'='WOO'
(Other definitions for woo that I've seen before include "Pay court to" , "Court, romance" , "Court a lady" , "Court, seek to marry" , "Court; importune" .)