dance Hear it!

dance Definition

dance (dans, däns)

intransitive verb danced, danc′·ing

  1. to move the body and feet in rhythm, ordinarily to music
  2. to move lightly and gaily; caper
  3. to bob up and down
  4. to be stirred into rapid movement, as leaves in a wind

Etymology: ME dauncen < OFr danser < ? Frank *dintjan, to tremble, move back and forth

transitive verb

  1. to take part in or perform (a dance)
    1. to cause to dance
    2. to cause to move lightly, bob up and down, etc.

noun

  1. rhythmic movement of the body and feet, ordinarily to music
  2. a particular kind of dance, as the waltz, tango, etc.
  3. the art of dancing, esp. as performed in ballet or modern dance
    1. a party to which people come to dance
    2. one round of dancing at such a party
  5. a piece of music for dancing
  6. rapid, lively movement

dance Related Forms
dance′·able adjective danc′er noun
dance Idioms

dance attendance on

to be always near so as to wait on, lavish attention on, etc.

dance to another tune

to alter one's actions or opinions as a result of changed conditions

dance Synonyms

dance

n.

  1. Rhythmic movement

    dancing, choreography, hop, jig, skip, prance, shuffle, fling, swing, caper, hoedown, hoofing*. see also waltz.

    Dances include --- Social: waltz, fox trot, shimmy, polka, conga, rumba, tango, samba, paso doble, cha-cha, mambo, bolero, disco, hustle, line dance, shag, lambada, merengue, vogue, freak, jerk, frug, jitterbug, one-step, two-step, box-step, Charleston, Peabody, bunny hug, twist, monkey, mashed potato; break dancing, slam dancing; theatrical: ballet, adagio, tap dance, soft-shoe, toe dance; traditional: cotillion, quadrille, pavane, loure, galliard, branle, sarabande, courante, bourrée, passepied, contredanse (all French), mazurka, polonaise, beguine, fandango, round dance, square dance, minuet, gavotte, schottische, rigadoon, shuffle, gallopade, galop; folk and primitive: sun dance, ghost dance, sword dance, snake dance, fertility dance, morris dance, Virginia reel, belly dance, Highland fling, flamenco, paso doble, Irish jig, buck and wing, clog, tarantella, hora, hornpipe, czardas, hula;

  2. A dancing party

    ball, promenade, grand ball, dress ball, masked ball, prom, cotillion, reception, masquerade, masque, tea dance, thé dansant (French), hoedown, mixer, hop*, shindig*, brawl*; see also party 1.

dance Synonyms

dance

v.

  1. To move rhythmically

    step, trip, tread, glide, whirl, jig, perform the steps of, execute the figures of, shuffle the feet, pirouette, trip the light fantastic, hoof it*, hop*, cut a rug*, rock*, foot it*, boogie*, vogue*; see also dancen.

  2. To move in a gay and sprightly manner

    hop, skip, jump, leap, bob, bobble, scamper, skitter, jiggle, jigger, caper, gambol, bounce, cavort, sway, swirl, sweep, swing, careen, curvet, cut capers; see also jump 1, 4, play 2.

    Antonyms sit*, perch*, stand.

dance Usage Examples

Object

  • salsa: It doesnât matter if youâve never salsa danced before â the focus on the evening is all about having fun.

Converse of object

  • tap: Jane then gave a rousing performance to a packed out audience with Lionel giving a top class tap dance along side.

Adjective modifier

  • merry: They need to know you're in control or they'll lead you a merry dance.
  • contemporary: Contemporary dance is not blessed with a plethora of media coverage on any platform.
  • Asian: Coming of Age has convinced the profession that there is a future here for everyone in South Asian dance.
  • Indian: There will be time for quiet personal reflection and the Gospel theme will be depicted in Indian Dance during the day.
  • classical: John Percival recalls the season which transformed classical dance in Britain Are short plays too risky to stage?

Modifies a noun

  • floor: Rarely has anyone hit the dance floor with such little regard for style or rhythm.
  • routine: Put together these moves gave everyone dance routines to suit all occasions.
  • studio: How Will I Learn Students will take dance classes in our new, purpose built dance studio.
  • music: The creation of dance music has become even easier.
  • tune: Were they paralyzed by the question of how to follow a landmark modern dance tune?

Noun used with modifier

  • barn: The traditional tutors ' barn dance was eschewed in favor of cocktails in Old Hall.
  • folk: Folk dance groups played an important role in our career.
  • dinner: Our historic Victorian Theater can accommodate a dinner dance for 200 or a drinks reception for 400.
  • jazz: This track has retained its popularity on the jazz dance scene over twenty five years and is rightly regarded as a classic.
  • salsa: Soon enough Tito was invited to be a member of famous salsa dance group, the Jala Jala Dancers.

Infinitive complement

  • samba: Leaders of the powerful G8 countries ran wild in Oxford on Saturday, shaking hands, waving and dancing to samba rhythms.

Preposition: in

  • aisle: A show guaranteed to have you dancing in the aisles!

Preposition: with

  • glee: If I, as Big-Man, want to dance with glee, I cannot just type: " I dance with glee.
dance Quotes

There's threesome reels, there's foursome reels, There's hornpipes and strathspeys, man, But the ae best dance e'er cam to the Land Was, the deil's awa wi' th' Exciseman.

—Burns, Robert

Can't act.Can't sing. Slightly bald.Can dance a little.

—Anonymous

Where the satyrs are chattering, nymphs with their flattering Glimpse of the forest enhance All the beauty of marrow and cucumber narrow And Ceres will join in the dance.

—Sitwell, Dame Edith Louisa

O, for a draught of vintage! that hath been Cooled a long age in the deep-delved earth, Tasting of Flora and the country green, Dance, and Proven c° al song, and sunburnt mirth! O for a beaker full of the warm South, Full of the true, the blushful Hippocrene, With beaded bubbles winking at the brim, And purple-stained mouth; That I might drink, and leave the world unseen, And with thee fade away into the forest dim.

—Keats,John

Miss Joan Hunter Dunn, Miss Joan Hunter Dunn, I can hear from the car-park the dance has begun. Oh! full Surrey twilight! importunate band! Oh! strongly adorable tennis-girl's hand!

—Betjeman, SirJohn

but wotthehell wotthehell oh i should worry and fret death and I will coquette there s a dance in the old dame yet toujoursgai toujoursgai.

—Marquis, Don(ald Robert Perry)

A dance is a measured pace, as a verse is a measured speech.

—Bacon, Francis,Viscount St Albans

Une danse est un poe'  me. A dance is a poem.

—Diderot, Denis

Dance, little words, on the end of your string. I can make you do most anything I want to. I can hide anywhere and watch you say the things I would never dare.

—Worley, Helen

Dance on this ball-floor thin and wan, Use him as though you love him; Court him, elude him, reel and pass, And let him hate you through the glass.

—Blunden, Edmund Charles

  We dance round in a ring and suppose, But the Secret sits in the middle and knows. 339

—Frost, Robert Lee

This will be the issue of that darling Plea, of being one and not two; it will be turned upon the Scots with a Vengeance; and their 45 Scots Members may dance round to all Eternity, in thisTrap of their own making.

—Fletcher (of Saltoun), Andrew

A speech is poetry: cadence, rhythm, imagery, sweep†and reminds us that words, like children, have the power to make dance the dullest beanbag of a heart.

—Noonan, Peggy

The desires of the heart are as crooked as corkscrews, Not to be born is the best for man; The second-best is a formal order, The dance's pattern; dance while you can.

—Auden,W(ystan) H(ugh)

OAutumn, laden with fruit, and stained With the blood of grape, pass not, but sit Beneath my shady roof; there thou may'st rest, And tune thy jolly voice to my fresh pipe, And all the daughters of the year shall dance! Sing now the lusty song of fruits and flowers.

—Blake,William

Drink and dance and laugh and lie, Love, the reeling midnight through, For tomorrow we shall die! (But, alas, we never do). See Bible121:16.

—Parker, Dorothy ne¤  e Rothschild

There may be trouble ahead But while there's moonlight and music and love and romance Let's face the music and dance

—Berlin, Irving originally Israel Baline

Learn then to dance, you that are princes born, And lawful lords of earthly creatures all; Imitate them, and thereof take no scorn, (For this new art to them is natural) And imitate the stars celestial. For when pale death your vital twist shall sever, Your better parts must dance with them forever.

—Davies, SirJohn

The author's conviction on this day of New Year is that music begins to atrophy when it departs toofar from the dance; that poetry beginsto atrophy when it getstoo far from music . . .

—Pound, Ezra Loomis

Now all the roads lead to France And heavy is the tread Of the living: but the dead Returning lightly dance.

—Thomas, (Philip) Edward

  And spectral dance, before the dawn, A hundred Vicars down the lawn; Curates, long dust, will come and go On lissom, clerical, printless toe; And oft between the boughs is seen The sly shade of a Rural Dean.

—Brooke, Rupert Chawner

Continuous as the stars that shine And twinkle on the milky way They stretched in never-ending line Along the margin of a bay: Ten thousand saw I at a glance, Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

—Wordsworth,William

You canteach anelephant to dance, butthe likelihood of its stepping on your toes is very high.

—Moss, Gary

Two things are always the same the dance and war.

—Stein, Gertrude

O chestnut tree, great-rooted blossomer, Are you the leaf, the blossom, or the bole? O body swayed to music,O brightening glance, How can we know the dancer from the dance?

—Yeats,W(illiam) B(utler)

I have forgot much,Cynara! Gone with the wind, Flung roses, roses, riotously with the throng, Dancing, to put thy pale, lost lilies out of mind; But I was desolate and sick of an old passion, Yea, all the time, because the dance was long: I have been faithful to thee,Cynara! in my fashion.

—Dowson, Ernest

At the still point of the turning world. Neither flesh nor fleshless; Neither from nor towards; at the still point, there the dance is, But neither arrest nor movement.

—Eliot,T(homas) S(tearns)

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: Atimeto be born, and atimeto die; atimetoplant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; Atimetoweep, and atimeto laugh; atimetomourn, and a time to dance: A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.

—Bible (Old Testament)

Danser, c'est de¤  couvrir et recre¤  er, surtout lorsque la danse est danse d'amour. C'est, en tout cas, le meilleur mode de connaissance. To dance is to discover and to recreate, above all when the dance is the dance of love. It is the best mode of knowledge.

—Senghor, Le¤  opold Se¤  dar

Not to go back, is somewhat to advance, And men must walk at least before they dance.

—Pope, Alexander

Will you, won't you, will you, won't you, will you join the dance?

—Dodgson

You expect to leave the dance with the ones you came with.

—Agassi, Andre