dancing

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dance

(dăns)

v. danced, danc·ing, danc·es

v.intr.

1. To move rhythmically usually to music, using prescribed or improvised steps and gestures.

2. Zoology To perform a specialized set of movements to communicate chiefly with other members of the same species.

a. To move or leap about excitedly.

b. To bob up and down or move about rapidly: The leaves danced in the wind.

c. To appear to flash or twinkle: eyes that danced with merriment.

4. Informal To speak or behave in an evasive or vacillating manner: danced around the issue.

v.tr.

1. To engage in or perform (a dance).

2. To lead (someone) in a dance.

3. To cause to move up and down quickly or lightly: danced the child on her knee.

a. A series of motions and steps, such as the waltz or tango, usually performed to music.

b. The act or an instance of dancing: May I have this dance?

c. The music composed or played for a certain kind of dance or for a particular dance.

d. The art of dancing: studied dance in college.

2. A party or gathering of people for dancing.

3. Zoology An act of communication by dancing: a peacock's courtship dance.

Idiom:

dance attendance on

To attend to or try to please (someone) with eagerness or obsequiousness.

[Middle English dauncen, from Old French danser, perhaps of Germanic origin.]

danc′er n.

danc′ing·ly adv.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Dancing

See Also: AGILITY, INSULTS, WORDS OF PRAISE

As light on your feet as a fairy —Rita Mae Brown
See Also: LIGHTNESS
As limber as a couple of Yale pass-keys (addressed to a dancer) —O. Henry
Danced like a faun —O. Henry
O. Henry was well known for perverting and extending existing sayings. This one can be traced to Robert Lowell’s “Dancing like naked fauns too glad for shame.”
Danced like a wave —Dame Edith Sitwell
Danced like a wet dream —Martin Amis
Danced like sandflies —Margaret Atwood
Danced like something dark and slithery from the Argentine —P. G. Wodehouse
(People) danced, moving their bodies like thick rope —Susan Richards Shreve
Dancers swaying like wet washing in a high wind —Lawrence Durrell
Dances like a Mack truck —Cornell Woolrich
Dances like an angel —Joseph Addison
(Sometimes I think that) dancing, like youth, is wasted on the young —Max Lerner
Dancing with her must be a good deal like moving the piano or something —Ring Lardner
(Helga Danzing danced just the way she looked: big, clumsy, almost impossible to lead,) dancing with her was like pushing a weight uphill —Abraham Rothberg
(You’ve got) a foot movement like a baby hippopotamus trying to sidestep a jab from a humming-bird … and your knees are about as limber as a couple of Yale pass-keys —O. Henry
Pirouetting like a Baryshnikov —T. Coraghessan Boyle
Sailed like a coquettish yacht convoyed by a stately cruiser —O. Henry
You dance like there’s a stone in your shoe —John Updike

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

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Noun

dancing - taking a series of rhythmical steps (and movements) in time to music

terpsichore, dance, saltation

sidestep - a step to one side (as in boxing or dancing)

diversion, recreation - an activity that diverts or amuses or stimulates; "scuba diving is provided as a diversion for tourists"; "for recreation he wrote poetry and solved crossword puzzles"; "drug abuse is often regarded as a form of recreation"

adagio - a slow section of a pas de deux requiring great skill and strength by the dancers

break dance, break dancing - a form of solo dancing that involves rapid acrobatic moves in which different parts of the body touch the ground; normally performed to the rhythm of rap music

courante - a court dance of the 16th century; consisted of short advances and retreats

nauch, nautch, nautch dance - an intricate traditional dance in India performed by professional dancing girls

pavan, pavane - a stately court dance of the 16th and 17th centuries

phrase - dance movements that are linked in a single choreographic sequence

saraband - a stately court dance of the 17th and 18th centuries; in slow time

skank - a rhythmic dance to reggae music performed by bending forward and extending the hands while bending the knees

slam dance, slam dancing - a form of dancing in which dancers slam into one another; normally performed to punk rock

hoofing, step dancing - dancing in which the steps are more important than gestures or postures

toe dance, toe dancing - a dance performed on tiptoe

choreography, stage dancing - a show involving artistic dancing

pas seul, variation - (ballet) a solo dance or dance figure

pas de deux, duet - (ballet) a dance for two people (usually a ballerina and a danseur noble)

pas de trois - (ballet) a dance for three people

pas de quatre - (ballet) a dance for four people

social dancing - dancing as part of a social occasion

mambo - a Latin American dance similar in rhythm to the rumba

ceremonial dance, ritual dance, ritual dancing - a dance that is part of a religious ritual

tap - a small metal plate that attaches to the toe or heel of a shoe (as in tap dancing)

performing arts - arts or skills that require public performance

busker - a person who entertains people for money in public places (as by singing or dancing), usually while asking for money

jive - dance to jive music; dance the jive

trip the light fantastic, trip the light fantastic toe, dance - move in a pattern; usually to musical accompaniment; do or perform a dance; "My husband and I like to dance at home to the radio"

clog - dance a clog dance

tap dance - perform a tap dance

belly dance - perform a belly dance

heel - perform with the heels; "heel that dance"

shimmy - dance a shimmy

Translations

رَقْص

tančenítanectaneční

dansdanse-

tanssiminen

plesanje

dans

ballo danza

踊ること

춤

tancovanie

plesanje

dansande

การเต้นรำ

dans danslı toplantı

sự nhảy múa

跳舞跳舞用的

dancing

[ˈdɑːnsɪŋ]

A. N → baile m

B. CPD dancing girl N → bailarina f
dancing partner N → pareja f de baile
dancing shoes NPL (gen) → zapatos mpl de baile; (for ballet) → zapatillas fpl de ballet

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

dancing

[ˈdɑːnsɪŋ] n → danse fdancing class n (= dancing lesson) → cours m de dansedancing partner n → cavalier/ière m/fdancing shoes npl [men] → escarpins mpl; [women] → chaussons mpl de danse

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

dancing

n → Tanzen nt

attr → Tanz-; dancing dervish → tanzender Derwisch; dancing shoe → Tanzschuh m; put on your dancing shoes! (fig) → mach dich hübsch or zurecht!

dancing

dancing girl

n → Tänzerin f

dancing master

m → Tanzlehrer m

dancing partner

n → Tanzpartner(in) m(f)

dancing step

n → Tanzschritt m

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

dancing

[ˈdɑːnsɪŋ] n → ballo

dance

(daːns) verb

1. to move in time to music by ma-king a series of rhythmic steps. She began to dance; Can you dance the waltz?

2. to move quickly up and down. The father was dancing the baby on his knee.

noun

1. a series of fixed steps made in time to music. Have you done this dance before?; (also adjective) dance music.

2. a social gathering at which people dance. We're going to a dance next Saturday.

ˈdancer noun

a ballet dancer.

ˈdancing noun

She likes dancing; (also adjective) dancing shoes.

dancing

→ رَقْص tanec dans Tanzen χορός baile tanssiminen danse plesanje ballo 踊ること 춤 danskunst dansing taniec dança танцы dansande การเต้นรำ danslı toplantı sự nhảy múa 跳舞

References in classic literature ?

"See, what beautiful dancing shoes!" said the soldier.

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The broad steps of the stone staircase were covered with cushions to serve as seats for the children, who were to stay till half-past nine with the servant- maids to see the dancing, and as this dance was confined to the chief tenants, there was abundant room for every one.

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To be fond of dancing was a certain step towards falling in love; and very lively hopes of Mr.

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Harling and Antonia were preserving cherries, when I stopped one morning to tell them that a dancing pavilion had come to town.

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One evening went Zarathustra and his disciples through the forest; and when he sought for a well, lo, he lighted upon a green meadow peacefully surrounded with trees and bushes, where maidens were dancing together.

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They liked to be together, for they liked the same things and the same people and the same books and their dancing was a joy, not only to themselves but to those who watched them.

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The focus of brilliancy was the long drawing-room, where the dancing went forward, under the inspiration of the grand piano; the library, into which it opened at one end, had the more sober illumination of maturity, with caps and cards; and at the other end the pretty sitting-room, with a conservatory attached, was left as an occasional cool retreat.

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Frank Churchill and Miss Woodhouse dancedfor doing that in which she need not blush to compare herself with Jane Fairfaxand even for simple dancing itself, without any of the wicked aids of vanityto assist him first in pacing out the room they were in to see what it could be made to holdand then in taking the dimensions of the other parlour, in the hope of discovering, in spite of all that Mr.

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So they began solemnly dancing round and round Alice, every now and then treading on her toes when they passed too close, and waving their forepaws to mark the time, while the Mock Turtle sang this, very slowly and sadly:--

View in context

It was thus the fountains were dancing to the moon in Arabia; it was thus the Nixies shook their white limbs on the haunted banks of the Rhine; it was thus the fairy women flashed their alabaster feet on the fairy hills of Connemara; it was thus the Houris were dancing for Mahomet on the palace floors of Paradise.

View in context

A little girl, radiant and beautiful, shapely as a fairy and exquisitely dressed, was dancing gracefully in the middle of the lonely road, whirling slowly this way and that, her dainty feet twinkling in sprightly fashion.

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But the king's son soon fell asleep; and when he awoke in the morning he found that the princesses had all been dancing, for the soles of their shoes were full of holes.