dancer
(ˈdɑːnsə(r), -æ-)
[f. dance v. + -er.]
1. a. One who dances; spec. one who dances professionally in public.
| c 1440 Promp. Parv. 114 Dawncere, tripudiator, tripudiatrix. 1599 Shakes. Much Ado ii. i. 111 God match me with a good dauncer. 1688 Lond. Gaz. No. 2318/4 Stage-Plays, Dancers of the Ropes, and other Publick Shews. 1790 Burns Tam O'Shanter 146 The dancers quick and quicker flew. 1858 Thackeray Virgin. xxviii, She is a dancer, and..no better or worse than her neighbours. |
† b. A dancing-master. Obs.
| 1599–16.. Middleton, etc. Old Law iii. ii, His dancer now came in as I met you. a 1627 Middleton Chaste Maid i. i, I hold my life you have forgot your dancing: when was the dancer with you? |
† c. transf. A dancing-dog. Obs.
| 1576 Fleming tr. Caius' Dogs in Arb. Garner III. 261 The dog called the Dancer..[They] are taught and exercised to dance in measure. 1688 R. Holme Armoury ii. 184/1. |
2. (pl.) A sect of enthusiasts who arose in 1374, chiefly in parts of Flanders, and were noted for their wild dancing; in Pathol. those affected with the dancing-mania (St. Vitus', St. John's dance, etc.) of the middle ages.
| 1764 A. Maclaine tr. Mosheim's Ch. Hist. xiv. ii. v. §8 Directly the reverse of this melancholy sect was the merry one of the Dancers, which..arose at Aix-la-Chapelle. 1844 Babington tr. Hecker's Epidemics Mid. Ages. i. 88 note, According to the Chronicle of Cologne, the St. John's dancers sang during their paroxysms. 1882–3 Schaff Encycl. Relig. Knowl. I. 602 The sect of the Dancers, who were enthusiasts, first appeared in 1374, on the Lower Rhine, dancing in honor of St. John. |
3. = dandy-roller, q.v.
4. pl. Stairs. slang.
| 1671 R. Head Eng. Rogue i. v. (1874) 52 (Farmer) Track up the dancers, go up the stayres. 1725 in New Cant. Dict. 1812 J. H. Vaux Flash Dict., Dancers, stairs. 1829 Lytton Disowned 65 Come, track up the dancers, and dowse the glim. 1858 ― What will he do? xvi. (D.), Come, my Hebe, track the dancers, that is, go up the stairs. |
5. pl. A local name for the aurora borealis or northern lights. Also merry dancers.
| c 1717 Lett. fr. Mist's Jrnl. (1722) I. 99 In the North of Scotland..they are seen continually every Summer in the Evening..they call them Dancers. 1727 Phil. Trans. XXXV. 304 The Meteor call'd by our Sailors, Merry Dancers, was visible, and very bright. 1863 C. St. John Nat. Hist. Moray 86 April 7th (1847)..we saw a very brilliant aurora borealis, or as they term it here, ‘The Merry Dancers’. |
6. slang. (See quots.)
| 1864 Hotten Slang Dict. 117 Dancer, or dancing-master, a thief who prowls about the roofs of houses, and effects an entrance by attic windows, &c. 1930 E. Wallace Lady of Ascot xiii. 120 There were active young men who called themselves dancers, and whose graft was to get into first-floor flats and get out quickly with such overcoats, wraps, and movables as could be whisked away in half a minute. |