DANCE • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Dance

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

/dæns/ Listen

noun

Dance n.

The leaping, tripping, or measured stepping of one who dances; an amusement, in which the movements of the persons are regulated by art, in figures and in accord with music.

(Mus.) A tune by which dancing is regulated, as the minuet, the waltz, the cotillon, etc. Note: The word dance was used ironically, by the older writers, of many proceedings besides dancing. "Of remedies of love she knew parchance For of that art she couth the olde dance."

Dance of Death (Art), an allegorical representation of the power of death over all, the old, the young, the high, and the low, being led by a dancing skeleton.

Morris dance. See Morris.

To lead one a dance, to cause one to go through a series of movements or experiences as if guided by a partner in a dance not understood.

verb

Dance v. t. To cause to dance, or move nimbly or merrily about, or up and down; to dandle. "To dance our ringlets to the whistling wind." "Thy grandsire loved thee well; Many a time he danced thee on his knee."

To dance attendance, to come and go obsequiously; to be or remain in waiting, at the beck and call of another, with a view to please or gain favor. "A man of his place, and so near our favor, To dance attendance on their lordships' pleasure."

Dance v. i. (past & past part. danced; pres. part. dancing)

To move with measured steps, or to a musical accompaniment; to go through, either alone or in company with others, with a regulated succession of movements, (commonly) to the sound of music; to trip or leap rhythmically. "Jack shall pipe and Gill shall dance." "Good shepherd, what fair swain is this Which dances with your daughter?"

To move nimbly or merrily; to express pleasure by motion; to caper; to frisk; to skip about. "Then, 'tis time to dance off." "More dances my rapt heart Than when I first my wedded mistress saw." "Shadows in the glassy waters dance." "Where rivulets dance their wayward round."

To dance on a rope, or To dance on nothing, to be hanged.

See images of 'Dance'

Etymology of 'Dance'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

Share |

"Dance" Quotes from Famous Books

... scattered in groups under the trees, the rest of the day was spent in singing, smoking, and drinking, or pretending to drink, punch; for the negroes who supplied it in pails usually contrived to take two or more glasses to every one glass that was drank by those for whom it was provided. The dance around the Liberty Tree, "Each hand in comrade's hand," closed the regular ceremonies of the day; but generally the greater part of the succeeding night was spent ...

— A Collection of College Words and Customs • Benjamin Homer Hall

... of eating in San Francisco you think of bright lights and dancing. In addition to the hotels, you may dance at innumerable cafes. Influences of Old Spain dowered San Francisco with an infatuation for the fiesta. The city has always been dance-minded. Art Hickman, virtuoso of jazz orchestration, was called to New York to have the Follies on The ...

— Fascinating San Francisco • Fred Brandt and Andrew Y. Wood

... ship,* or as making part of a flock of black men, parked on the soil of the West Indies; but for individuals there are degrees of suffering and privation. (* "If the slaves are whipped," said one of the witnesses before the Parliamentary Committee of 1789, "to make them dance on the deck of a slave ship—if they are forced to sing in chorus; 'Messe, messe, mackerida,' [how gaily we live among the whites], this only proves the care we take of the health of those men." This delicate attention reminds me of the description of an auto-da-fe ...

— Equinoctial Regions of America V3 • Alexander von Humboldt

... which impressed the unlearned "tenderfoot" with a lively sense of the profundity of their inventor's acquirements. When not entertaining a circle of admiring auditors from San Francisco or the East he could commonly be found pursuing the comparatively obscure industry of sweeping out the various dance houses and purifying ...

— The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce, Vol. II: In the Midst of Life: Tales of Soldiers and Civilians • Ambrose Bierce

... sat about the fires where the venison was roasting, and talked openly of pearls. They had a cask of wine out from the ship, and some of their men made great laughter trying to dance with the young men of Cofachique. But one of the tame Indians that Ayllon had brought from Hispaniola with him, went privately to his master. 'I know this dance,' he said; 'it is a dance of death.' But Ayllon dared do nothing except have a small cannon ...

— The Trail Book • Mary Austin et al

More quotes...