DANCING • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Dancing

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/dˈænsɪŋ/ Listen

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.

adjective

Dancing adj., n. From Dance.

Dancing girl, one of the women in the East Indies whose profession is to dance in the temples, or for the amusement of spectators. There are various classes of dancing girls.

Dancing master, a teacher of dancing.

Dancing school, a school or place where dancing is taught.

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Etymology of 'Dancing'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Dancing" Quotes from Famous Books

... dear Major, are naturally dear to a girl's heart," continued Uncle John, musingly; "and we who are not girls have no right to condemn their natural longings. Girls love dancing, pink teas and fudge-parties, and where can they find 'em in all their perfection but in high society? Girls love admiration and flirtations—you do, my dears; you can't deny it—and the male society swells have the most time to ...

— Aunt Jane's Nieces in Society • Edith Van Dyne

... grow alarmingly long in the wick,—comparative darkness involves the sage assembly,—and first one, then another, drops off into a placid and harmonious repose. Then what dreams float before the eyes of their imagination! Blue silk pelisses jostling shovel hats, church spires dancing in most admired disorder, fat incumbents falling down in a fit, neat clerical-looking gigs standing at vicarage doors, and these all incongruously commingled with white veils, lawn sleeves, roast ...

— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, Vol. 13, - Issue 350, January 3, 1829 • Various

... we were still in full enjoyment of sunny France, where, in our own experience, it had rained two months steadily. Indeed, at this moment it was raining, raining a steady, cold, sodden drizzle that had not even the grace to pick out the surface of the harbour in the jolly dancing staccato that goes far to lend attraction to ...

— African Camp Fires • Stewart Edward White

... familiar. "That's about the ticket, I think, my lady. Yes, just so. I found a nice old hag waiting to claim her five pounds reward; for, you see, the men at the police-office at Murford Haven contrived to keep her dancing attendance backward and forwards—call again in an hour, and so on—till I was there to cross-question her. A precious deep one she is, too; and a regular jail-bird, I'll wager. I soon reckoned her up; and I ...

— Run to Earth - A Novel • M. E. Braddon

... curious way of changing their location by means of opening their shells and then closing them with great force, which sends them off at an angle, and so they go dancing along the bottom till they reach a spot that suits them. This shell-fish forms a beautiful ...

— Harper's Young People, August 17, 1880 - An Illustrated Weekly • Various

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