dance
EnglishEdit
Alternative formsEdit
- daunce (obsolete)
EtymologyEdit
From Middle English dauncen, daunsen, a borrowing from Anglo-Norman dauncer, dancer (“to dance”) (compare Old French dancier), from Frankish *þansōn (“to draw, pull, stretch out, gesture”) (compare Old High German dansōn (“to draw, pull”)), from Proto-West Germanic *þansōn. Replaced Old English sealtian (“to dance”) borrowed from Latin saltāre (“to leap, dance”). More at thin.
PronunciationEdit
- IPA(key): /dæns/
- IPA(key): /dɑːns/
- (Received Pronunciation, Cockney, Estuary, Jamaica) IPA(key): [dɑːns]
Audio (UK) (file)
- (Cultivated Australian, General New Zealand) IPA(key): [däːns]
- (Received Pronunciation, Cockney, Estuary, Jamaica) IPA(key): [dɑːns]
- Rhymes: -ɑːns, -æns
NounEdit
dance (countable and uncountable, plural dances)
- A sequence of rhythmic steps or movements usually performed to music, for pleasure or as a form of social interaction.
- 1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter II, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, OCLC 24962326:
- "I ought to arise and go forth with timbrels and with dances; but, do you know, I am not inclined to revels? There has been a little—just a very little bit too much festivity so far …. Not that I don't adore dinners and gossip and dances; not that I do not love to pervade bright and glittering places. […]"
- A social gathering where dancing is the main activity.
- 1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter II, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, OCLC 24962326:
- "I ought to arise and go forth with timbrels and with dances; but, do you know, I am not inclined to revels? There has been a little—just a very little bit too much festivity so far …. Not that I don't adore dinners and gossip and dances; not that I do not love to pervade bright and glittering places. […]"
- (uncountable) The art, profession, and study of dancing.
- (uncountable) A genre of modern music characterised by sampled beats, repetitive rhythms and few lyrics.
- A piece of music with a particular dance rhythm.[1]
- 1909, Archibald Marshall [pseudonym; Arthur Hammond Marshall], “A Court Ball”, in The Squire’s Daughter, New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead and Company, published 1919, OCLC 491297620, page 9:
- They stayed together during three dances, went out on to the terrace, explored wherever they were permitted to explore, paid two visits to the buffet, and enjoyed themselves much in the same way as if they had been school-children surreptitiously breaking loose from an assembly of grown-ups.
- (figuratively) A battle of wits, especially one commonly fought between two rivals.
- So how much longer are we gonna do this dance?
- (figuratively, dated) Any strenuous or difficult movement, action, or task.
- 1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, H.L. Brækstad, transl., Folk and Fairy Tales, page 170:
- He that would watch the king's hares must not drag himself along as if he was a lazybones with soles of lead to his boots, or like a fly on a tar-brush, for when the hares began to scamper about on the hill-sides it was quite another dance than lying at home and catching fleas with mittens on.
- (heraldry) A normally horizontal stripe called a fess that has been modified to zig-zag across the center of a coat of arms from dexter to sinister.
HyponymsEdit
- See also Thesaurus:dance
Derived termsEdit
Terms derived from dance (noun)
TranslationsEdit
movements to music
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VerbEdit
dance (third-person singular simple present dances, present participle dancing, simple past and past participle danced)
- (intransitive) To move with rhythmic steps or movements, especially in time to music.
- 1898, Winston Churchill, chapter 4, in The Celebrity:
- “Well,” I answered, at first with uncertainty, then with inspiration, “he would do splendidly to lead your cotillon, if you think of having one.” ¶ “So you do not dance, Mr. Crocker?” ¶ I was somewhat set back by her perspicuity.
- I danced with her all night long.
- (intransitive) To leap or move lightly and rapidly.
- His eyes danced with pleasure as he spoke. She accused her political opponent of dancing around the issue instead of confronting it.
- 1812–1818, [Lord] Byron, George Gordon, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, canto 2, verse 54:
- And woods along the banks are waving high, / Whose shadows in the glassy waters dance,
- (transitive) To perform the steps to.
- Have you ever danced the tango?
- (transitive) To cause to dance, or move nimbly or merrily about.
- c. 1595–1596, William Shakespeare, “A Midsommer Nights Dreame”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act II, scene i]:
- Met we on hill, in dale, forest, or mead,
By pavèd fountain, or by rushy brook,
or in the beachèd margent of the sea,
To dance our ringlets to the whistling wind,
But with thy brawls thou hast disturbed our sport.
- c. 1588–1593, William Shakespeare, “The Lamentable Tragedy of Titus Andronicus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act V, scene iii]:
- Thy grandsire loved thee well; / Many a time he danced thee on his knee.
- (figuratively, euphemistic) To make love or have sex.
- You make me feel like dancing.
SynonymsEdit
- (move with rhythmic steps or movements): throw shapes
- (to engage in sexual intercourse): do the deed, get some, have sex; see also Thesaurus:copulate
Derived termsEdit
DescendantsEdit
TranslationsEdit
move rhythmically to music
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See alsoEdit
ReferencesEdit
- ^ “dance” in John A. Simpson and Edmund S. C. Weiner, editors, The Compact Oxford English Dictionary, volume I (A–O), 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, [1989] 1991, →ISBN, page 387.
Further readingEdit
AnagramsEdit
FrenchEdit
EtymologyEdit
PronunciationEdit
NounEdit
dance f (uncountable)
GalicianEdit
VerbEdit
dance
- first-person singular present subjunctive of danzar
- third-person singular present subjunctive of danzar
Middle FrenchEdit
EtymologyEdit
NounEdit
dance f (plural dances)
DescendantsEdit
- French: danse
Old FrenchEdit
EtymologyEdit
From Germanic, see English dance, French danse
NounEdit
dance f (oblique plural dances, nominative singular dance, nominative plural dances)
- dance
- circa 1180, Chrétien de Troyes, 'Lancelot ou le Chevalier de la charrette':
- Baules et queroles et dance
- Dancing, singing and dance
PortugueseEdit
VerbEdit
dance
- first-person singular (eu) present subjunctive of dançar
- third-person singular (ele and ela, also used with você and others) present subjunctive of dançar
- third-person singular (você) affirmative imperative of dançar
- third-person singular (você) negative imperative of dançar
ReferencesEdit
- “dance” in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa.
- “dance” in Dicionário infopédia da Língua Portuguesa. Porto: Porto Editora, 2003–2021.
SpanishEdit
PronunciationEdit
VerbEdit
dance