dance
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /dɑːns/
note: Received Pronunciation, Cockney, Estuary, Jamaica
ipa: [dɑːns]
ipa: /dæns/
ipa: [dɛəns]
ipa: [deəns]
ipa: [dæns]
ipa: [dans]
ipa: [däns]
ipa: [dæːns]
note: Cultivated Australian, New Zealand
ipa: [däːns]
note: Cultivated Australian, New Zealand
ipa: [dɐːns]
ipa: [ɖɑːns]
rhymes: -ɑːns
rhymes: -æns
Forms: form: dances
form: dancing
form: danced
form: danced
form: daunce
Etymology: From Middle English dauncen, from Anglo-Norman dauncer, from Vulgar Latin *dantiāre, of uncertain origin. Displaced Old English sealtian, and partially displaced Old English hlēapan (“to leap, dance, run”) (whence modern leap).
Senses: examples: text: I danced with her all night long.
text: These drum beats are making me dance!
text: “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.
ref: 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter IV, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:
glosses: To move with rhythmic steps or movements, especially in time to music.
examples: text: His eyes danced with pleasure as he spoke. She accused her political opponent of dancing around the issue instead of confronting it.
text: And woods along the banks are waving high, / Whose shadows in the glassy waters dance,
ref: 1812–1818, George Gordon [Lord] Byron, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, canto 2, verse 54:
text: A common and beautiful side-effect of high solar activity is the Aurora Borealis - the northern lights that dance across Arctic skies.
ref: 2023 November 15, Prof. Jim Wild, “This train was delayed because of bad weather in space”, in RAIL, number 996, page 30:
glosses: To leap or move lightly and rapidly.
examples: text: Have you ever danced the tango?
glosses: To perform the steps to.
examples: text: 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.
ref: c. 1595–1596 (date written), 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, [Act II, scene i]:
text: Thy grandsire loved thee well; / Many a time he danced thee on his knee.
ref: c. 1588–1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Lamentable Tragedy of Titus Andronicus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene iii]:
glosses: To cause to dance, or move nimbly or merrily about.
examples: text: You make me feel like dancing.
glosses: To make love or have sex.
examples: text: It was seen that the readiness to dance and intensity of the dance are clearly increased when the temperature in the hive remained between 28-36° C.
ref: 1961 November, W. Wittekindt, “An Understanding of Dancing Behaviour”, in G. H. Cale, editor, The American Bee Journal, volume 101, number 11, Hamilton, page 434:
topics: agriculture
beekeeping
business
lifestyle
glosses: To make a repetitive movement in order to communicate to other worker honey bees.
raw_tags: of a worker honey bee
examples: text: If that veil can be maintained, if the workers can be kept from knowing the perfidy of officials, the criminality of capitalism, the murderous vengeance that is planned by the plutocratic powers of America, then Charles Moyer, William D. Haywood, and George Pettibone will dance on empty air, while the ghouls of capitalism rejoice because they have landed another blow upon the body of resisting labor.
ref: 1907, Literary Digest, volume 34, page 364:
text: Beneath the shoulder blades of the limp form lying there lay the heart that had hated him, that had beat high at the thought of seeing him kick at the end of a hangman's rope, that had exulted in the prospect of him dancing a death dance on air.
ref: 1926, Walter Noble Burns, The Saga of Billy the Kid, page 250:
text: Simon had seen other men executed at Berkeley, both in the castle and outside in the village. They were usually strung up like rats, left to dance, their death throes sometimes seeming to last forever.
ref: 2001, Paul Doherty, The Hangman's Hymn (Canterbury Tales Mysteries, Book 5):
text: 'Hats off!' the shout went up, not out of respect for those about to die, but for a better view of their death dance. The hangman, who was as drunk as anyone else, uncoiled the rope's free end from each prisoner in turn and threw it up to an assistant balanced precariously on the beam above. Each was tightly fastened, leaving very little slack. When the moment came, the carts would be driven out from under the prisoners, leaving them dancing the Tyburn jig, their legs paddling helplessly in the air.
ref: 2010 January 12, Sara Starbuck, Dread Pirate Fleur and the Hangman's Noose, page 342:
text: Not only will you be whipped, but Jack Ketch will be displeased. He knows how to attach the rope just so...a man's neck can be snaped in an instant and he feels pain for a moment only. Or, at Ketch's pleasure, the man swings in the air, his legs dance in an ungainly manner, his face turns red, his tongue turns purple and protrudes - a poor devil once bit off the tip and spit it out, and he chocked(sic) to death.
ref: 2019 November 7, Carter J. Gregory, The Hangman's Psalm: The Girl at the Gallows:
text: Initially, all hanging deaths were by the short rope. The victims strangled as they performed a twitching death dance. Over time there was a move to a longer rope. The extra drop meant the victim's neck snapped, causing a more humane death. For a long time adter the long rope was introduced, stories circulated around Aberdeen of executioners slipping in the short rope for criminals convicted of particularly heinous crimes, especially for crimes against children. No quick end for these devils. A slow dancing death, courtesy of the short rope, brouht in by canny executioners.
ref: 2022 November 30, John Gardiner, A Hitchhiker's Triptych:
glosses: To kick and convulse from the effects of being hanged.
Synonyms: sense: move with rhythmic steps or movements
word: throw shapes
sense: to engage in sexual intercourse
word: do the deed
word: get some
word: have sex
word: copulate
Derived terms: angels dancing on the head of a pin
baby dance
bedance
braindance
breakdance
danceability
danceable
dance around
dance attendance
dance out
dancer
dance the hempen jig
dance the Tyburn jig
dance to a different tune
dance to a new tune
dance to someone's tune
dance upon nothing
dance with the devil
dance with the one that brought you
dancing juice
dancing links
dancingly
dancingness
dirty dance
line dance
nondancing
outdance
put on one's dancing shoes
undanced
undancing
underdanced
Related terms: acrobatics
ballet
ballroom
disco
foxtrot
hiphop
jazz
modern
musical theatre
tap dancing
terpsichorean