poussette
English edit
Etymology edit
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
poussette (plural poussettes)
- A movement, or part of a figure, in the contradance.
- 1846, Charles Dickens, The Battle of Life:
- But, now, the Bird of Paradise was seen to flutter down the middle; and the little bells began to bounce and jingle in poussette; and the Doctor's rosy face spun round and round, like an expressive peg-top highly varnished; and breathless Mr. Craggs began to doubt already, whether country dancing had been made 'too easy,' like the rest of life; and Mr. Snitchey, with his nimble cuts and capers, footed it for Self and Craggs, and half-a-dozen more.
- (card games) A method of cheating in card games, whereby a player surreptitiously changes his or her stake after the cards are dealt.
Verb edit
poussette (third-person singular simple present poussettes, present participle poussetting, simple past and past participle poussetted)
- (intransitive) To waltz around each other, as two couples do in a contra dance.
- 1842, Alfred Tennyson, “Amphion”, in Poems. […], volume II, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 167:
- Came wet-shod alder from the wave, / Came yews, a dismal coterie; / Each pluck'd his one foot from the grave, / Poussetting with a sloe-tree: […]
French edit
Etymology edit
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
poussette f (plural poussettes)
Further reading edit
- “poussette”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.