▪ I. dance, n.
(dɑːns, -æ-)
Forms: 4–7 daunce, (4–5 dauns(e, 5–6 dawnce, 6 dans(s), 5– dance.
[a. OF. dance, danse, f. the vb. dancer, danser. So Pr., Cat. dansa, Sp. danza, Pg. dan{cced}a, dansa, It. danza; also Ger. tanz, Du. dans.]
1. A rhythmical skipping and stepping, with regular turnings and movements of the limbs and body, usually to the accompaniment of music; either as an expression of joy, exultation, and the like, or as an amusement or entertainment; the action or an act or round of dancing.
| c 1300 K. Alis. 6990 Murye they syngyn, and daunces maken. 1303 R. Brunne Handl. Synne 4684 Daunces, karols, somour games. c 1340 Cursor M. 7601 (Trin.) In her daunse [v.r. dauncing, karol] þis was þe song. c 1400 Rom. Rose 808 It to me liked right wele, That Courtesie me cleped so, And bade me on the daunce go. 1535 Coverdale Ps. cxlix. 3 Let them prayse his name in the daunce. 1590 Shakes. Mids. N. ii. i. 254 Lul'd in these flowers with dances and delight. 1611 Bible Judg. xxi. 21 If the daughters of Shiloh come out to daunce in daunces. 1667 Milton P.L. v. 619 That day..they spent In song and dance about the sacred Hill. 1730–46 Thomson Autumn 1225 Leaps wildly graceful in the lively dance. 1762–71 H. Walpole Vertue's Anecd. Paint. (1786) II. 157 The holy family with a dance of Angels..is a capital picture. 1841 Lever C. O'Malley cxviii, Waltzers whirled past in the wild excitement of the dance. Mod. Her partner for the next dance. |
2. a. A definite succession or arrangement of steps and rhythmical movements constituting one partiticular form or method of dancing.
| 1393 Gower Conf. III. 365 The hove daunce and the carole. 1521 R. Copland (title), Maner of Dauncynge of base daunces after the vse of Fraunce. 1599 Shakes. Hen. V, ii. iv. 25 If we heard that England Were busied with a Whitson Morris-dance. 1600 J. Pory tr. Leo's Africa i. 55 A kinde of dance which they use also in Spaine..called The Canaries. 1711 Budgell Spect. No. 67 ¶2 Pyrrhus..Inventing the Dance which is called after his Name. 1879 H. N. Moseley Nat. on Challenger 331 The most interesting dances were a Club Dance and a Fan Dance. |
b. A tune or musical composition for regulating the movements of a dance, or composed in a dance rhythm.
| 1509 Hawes Past Pleas. xvi. xix, She commaunded her mynstrelles right anone to play..the gentill daunce. 1597 Morley Introd. Mus. 180 Ballete or daunces..songs, which being song to a dittie may likewise be daunced. 1711 Budgell Spect. No. 67 ¶9 [He] bid the Fidlers play a Dance called Mol Patley. 1880 Grove Dict. Mus. I. 350/1 His [Chopin's] first..compositions were dances: Polonaises, Mazurkas, and Valses. |
3. A social gathering for the purpose of dancing; a dancing party.
| c 1385 Chaucer L.G.W. 1269 Dido, And waytyn hire at festis and at dauncis. 1790 Burns Tam O'Shanter 178 Ah! little kenn'd thy reverend grannie, That sark she coft for her wee Nannie..Wad ever graced a dance of witches! a 1845 Barham Ingold. Leg., Wedding day, When asked to a party, a dance, or a dinner. Mod. Mrs. S. is giving a dance instead of a garden party this year. |
4. transf. and
fig.| 1751 Johnson Rambler No. 85 ¶4 The dance of spirits, the bound of vigour..are reserved for him that braces his nerves. 1879 Stainer Music of Bible 3 One might say that rhythm is the dance of sound. 1881 Daily Tel. 28 Jan., The dance of the waters, especially to windward, was visible for over a mile around. |
† 5. fig. Course of action; mode of procedure, play, game.
to know the old dance:
cf. F. ‘
elle s{cced}ait assez de la vieille danse, she knowes well enough what belongs to the Game’ (
Cotgr.).
| a 1352 Minot Poems i. 66 At Donde now es done þaire daunce, And wend þai most anoþer way. Ibid. v. 14 Sare it þam smerted þat ferd out of France, Þare lered Inglis men þam a new daunce. c 1386 Chaucer Prol. 476 Of remedies of loue she knew per chaunce For she koude of that Art the olde daunce. 1423 Jas. I. Kingis Q. clxxxv, Tham that ar noght entrit inne The dance of lufe. c 1449 Pecock Repr. i. xvi. 86 God for his merci and pitee kepe Ynglond, that he come not into lijk daunce. 1513 More Rich. III, Wks. 53 The lord Stanley and he had departed with diuerse other lordes, and broken all the daunce. 1659 B. Harris Parival's Iron Age 193 The Emperour..troubled, at this too long and too bloody dance. 1733 Walpole in Morley Life viii. (1889) 174 This dance..will no further go. I meant well, but..the Act could not be carried into execution without an armed force. |
6. Phrases:
a. to begin, lead the dance;
fig. to take the lead in any course of action.
| c 1325 Coer de L. 3739 The damyseles lede daunse. c 1374 Chaucer Troylus ii. 504 Yet made he þo as fressh a contenaunce, As þough he schulde haue led þe newe daunce. c 1380 Wyclif Sel. Wks. II. 360 Crist þat lediþ þe daunce of love. 1526 Skelton Magnyf. 1348 Foly foteth it properly, Fansy ledeth the dawnce. 1579 Tomson Calvin's Serm. Tim. 522/2 They must begin the dance to be punished. a 1616 Beaum. & Fl. Cust. Country ii. i, They heard your lordship Was, by the ladies' choice, to lead the dance. 1742 Mann Let. to H. Walpole 23 Sept., M. de Gages is now the man who begins the dance. |
b. to lead, rarely give (a person) a dance;
fig. to lead (him) in a wearying, perplexing, or disappointing course; to cause him to undergo exertion or worry with no adequate result.
| a 1529 Skelton Edw. IV, 29 She [Fortune] toke me by the hand and led me a daunce. 1599 Porter Angry Wom. Abingd. iii. ii, I pray God, they may..both be led a dark dance in the night! 1682 Hickeringill Wks. (1716) II. 37, I think he has led me a fair dance, I am so tyred. 1700 S. L. tr. C. Fryke's Voy. E. Ind. 45 [A monkey] led me such a dance, that I had almost stuck in the Slough. 1798 W. Hutton Autobiog. 65, I should have led them a dance of twenty miles to breakfast at Kidderminster. 1874 Aldrich Prud. Palfrey i. (1885) 12 It was notorious that the late Maria Jane had led Mr. Wiggins something of a dance in this life. |
c. Dance of Death: an allegorical representation of Death leading men of all ranks and conditions in the dance to the grave: a very common subject of pictorial representation during the middle ages. Also called
Dance of Macabre, F.
danse macabre: see Littré.
| c 1430 Lydg. Daunce of Machabree Prol., The which daunce at sainct innocentes Portrayed is with all the surplusage. Ibid., Death fyrst speaketh vnto the Pope, and after to euery degree as foloweth. 1480 Robt. Devyll 26 For and we nowe in deathes daunce stode To hell shoulde we go, with horrible vengeaunce. 1494 Fabyan Chron. vi. clvi. 145 But deth y{supt} is to all persones egall, lastlye tooke hym in his dymme daunce, whan he had ben kyng .xlvii. yeres. 1631 Weever Anc. Fun. Mon. 378 The dance of Death..the Picture of death leading all estates. 1833 J. Dallaway Archit. Eng. 137 (Stanford) The Dance of Macabre (Holbein's Dance of Death) was painted on the walls. |
d. St. Vitus's dance = chorea,
q.v.; also
fig. Also
St. John's, St. Guy's dance, terms applied to the dancing-mania of the middle ages.
| 1621 Burton Anat. Mel. i. i. i. iv, Chorus Sancti Viti, or S. Vitus Dance..they that are taken with it can do nothing but dance till they be dead, or cured. 1721 Bailey, Chorea Santi Viti, St. Vitus's Dance. 1746 J. Andree (title), Cases of Epilepsy, Hysteric Fits, and St. Vitus's Dance, with the Process and Cure. 1804 Southey in H. D. Traill Coleridge (1884) 106 His [Coleridge's] mind is in a perpetual St. Vitus's dance—eternal activity without action. 1840 Tweedie Pract. Med. II. 205 In St. John's dance, as well as in that of St. Vitus..a tympanic state of the abdomen was a frequent symptom. |
e. dance upon nothing: an ironical expression for hanging (
cf. dance v. 3 b).
| 1840 Hood Kilmansegg, Her Death ix, Just as the felon condemned to die..From his gloomy cell in a vision elopes, To caper on sunny greens and slopes, Instead of the dance upon nothing. a 1845 ― An Open Question, note, If a dance upon Sunday led so inevitably to a dance upon nothing! |
7. attrib. and
Comb., as
dance-band,
dance-floor,
dance-frock,
dance-leader,
dance-lover,
dance-rhythm,
dance-step,
dance-tune;
dance-loving adj.;
dance-card, a card bearing the names of (a woman's) prospective partners at a dance;
dance-director, the person who, in musical comedies, arranges the dances;
dance-drama, a rendering through dancing of a dramatic situation;
dance-hall,
-house orig. U.S., a public dancing saloon;
dance hostess, (
a) a woman who holds a dance at her house, etc.; (
b) a dancing-partner (sense
b,
dancing vbl. n. b);
dance-music, ‘music designed as an accompaniment to dancing; also, music written in dance rhythm though not for dancing purposes’ (Grove
Dict. Mus.);
dance programme = dance-card.
| 1927 Melody Maker Aug. 739/1 It was his boast then that he would have a symphonic *dance band. 1962 J. Wain Strike Father Dead 67 The convention that lays it down that English dance-band singers must put on an American accent. |
| 1895 J. L. Williams Princeton Stories 199 You will here meet several of those whose names you have on your *dance-card, and you may make up your mind whether to remember that fact or not. 1922 Joyce Ulysses 11 Old feather fans, tasselled dancecards, powdered with musk. |
| 1932 Wodehouse Louder & Funnier 84 The *dance-director is instructed to think up a lot of different business for the first encore. |
| 1924 New Republic 26 Nov. 11 Spend a few hours in a New Mexico pueblo at the end of the day of one of their sacred *dance-dramas. 1938 Encycl. Brit. Bk. of Yr. 1938 251/2 Dance dramas, marionette shows, musical comedies, [etc.]. 1958 Times 13 Aug. 5/3 Darrell's dance-drama The Prisoners..was not only topical..but also gripping. 1968 Jrnl. Mus. Acad. Madras XXXIX. 1 The dramatic poem of the Composer Nauka Caritram was also produced as a dance-drama. |
| 1928 Melody Maker Feb. 171/3 The *dance floor was crowded. 1959 M. Shadbolt New Zealanders 32 There was even a crude dance-floor erected for the night a little back from the beach. |
| 1904 Westm. Gaz. 18 Feb. 4/2 An accordion-pleated lace net is one of the prettiest *dance-frocks I have seen for some time. |
| 1858 Mass. Acts & Resolves 125 Any person who shall offer to view..any..show, concert, or *dance-hall exhibition of any description shall be punished by a fine. 1891 Scribner's Mag. Sept. 276/1 Port Said..abounds in French cafés and dance-halls. 1904 Conrad Nostromo i. viii. 107 From the doors of the dance hall men and women emerged tottering. 1934 T. S. Eliot Rock i. 40 Everythink useful for the people: dance 'alls, picture palaces, swimmin' baths. |
| 1909 Daily Chron. 8 July 6/5 Lady Londesborough was one of the chief *dance hostesses last night. 1934 F. B. Young This Little World ix. 179 A young woman of a most undesirable class—a ‘dance-hostess’ (the word was vaguely familiar and unpleasant) in a London night club. 1961 A. Wilson Old Men at Zoo ii. 113 She's a dance hostess. |
| 1848 Western Boatman (Cincinnati) June 133 That afternoon I wrote a letter to a friend of mine in Natchez, who was a woman that kept a *dance-house. 1875 Mrs. Stowe We & Neighbors xli. 375 He told me that he was in the constant habit of passing through the dance-houses, and talking with people who kept them. 1889 Boston (Mass.) Jrnl. 24 Apr. 1/8 To run a dance-house and gambling-den. 1946 G. Foreman Last Trek of Indians 256 His forsaken wife, Comes-at-Rain, sprang through the window of the dance house. |
| c 1440 Promp. Parv. 114 *Dawnceledere, coralles. |
| 1860 G. H. K. Vac. Tour. 152 Very popular..as a means of producing *dance music. |
| 1906 Dialect Notes III. 133 Got your *dance-program filled up yet? 1913 C. Mackenzie Sinister St. I. ii. i. 149 The dance programme, with Muriel's name fourteen times repeated. 1926 S. T. Warner Lolly Willowes i. 42 A bunch of dance programmes kept for the sake of their little pencils. 1968 D. Hopkinson Incense-Tree iv. 46 Dance programmes were usual—with the names of the dances on one side and space for the names of partners on the other, and a small pink pencil tied on with blue cord. |
| 1880 Grove Dict. Mus. II. s.v. Melody, In the matter of rhythm there are two things which play a part—the rhythmic qualities of language, and *dance rhythms. 1947 A. Einstein Mus. Romantic Era xvi. 290 A pathetic recitative changes suddenly into the most impudent dance-rhythm. |
| 1920 S. Lewis Main St. 380 The rude fiddling and banging *dance-steps in the barn. 1936 Discovery June 186/2 For the different kinds of spirits [to be exorcised] different dances are held, each with its special dance-steps. 1962 Times 26 Apr. 8/1 Ready-made and established dance-steps. |
▸
= dance music n. at Additions. Freq.
attrib.| 1988 N.Y. Times 10 Jan. ii. 28/1 Relying on machines rather than people is bound to change music. (It already has on dance records, where repeating beats have been virtually already..taken over by machines.) 1993 Daily Tel. 1 July 18/4 In a festival so devoted to Sixties and Seventies retro, it is probably no coincidence that dance, the only significant pop music development since that period, was almost ignored in the programming. 1994 Face Jan. 44/2 Asked to describe it [sc. her album], she falters. ‘Erm... it's alternative, it's not really dance. I mean, when it goes into remixes and stuff and club 12-inches it will be.’ 1998 S. Reynolds Energy Flash xii. 280 The soundtrack mixed proto-techno electronic dance with Wax Trax-style industrial and indiepop like The Smiths' ‘Girlfriend In A Coma’. 2000 Transition No. 80. 134/2 Techno, the late-1980s dance genre from black Detroit that eventually sparked the rave scene in Europe. |
▸
dance music n. spec. a genre of popular music which is largely or wholly synthesized, has a repetitive beat, few or no lyrics, and
freq. incorporates sound samples (
cf. sample n.).
| 1987 Chicago Tribune (Nexis) 4 Mar. 23 House is mean, pounding dance music... The beat goes boom, boom, boom, boom, with no real melody line and no relief. 1989 Blitz Jan. 34/3 Next year you'll see lots of fast dance music again, garage and house stuff, but this time with big vocals. 1995 J. Miller Voxpop i. 9, I like dance music and rave now, not hardcore, mostly garage and progressive. 2001 Evening Post (Bristol) (Electronic ed.) 25 Jan. Dance music has become very commercial with house tunes, trance anthems and hard house tracks crossing over into the mainstream charts. |
▪ II. dance, v. (
dɑːns,
-æ-)
Forms: 4–6
daunse, 4–7
daunce, (5
dawnce, 6
dans(s,
danse), 5–
dance.
[a. OF. dance-r, danse-r = Pr. dansar, Sp. danzar, Pg. dan{cced}ar, dansar, It. danzare. The origin of the Romanic word is obscure; it is generally held (after Diez) to be an adoption of
OHG. dansôn to draw, to stretch out, from which is supposed to have arisen the sense ‘to form a file or chain in dancing’. From Romanic the word has been taken (back) in the sense ‘dance’ into German:
MHG. tanzen (11th c,
MDu. dansen. (
OHG. dansôn was a derivative form from
dinsan = Goth. þinsan in
at-þinsan to draw towards one.)]
1. intr. To leap, skip, hop, or glide with measured steps and rhythmical movements of the body, usually to the accompaniment of music, either by oneself, or with a partner or in a set.
| c 1300 K. Alis. 5213 Mery time it is in May..Maydens so dauncen and thay play. 1388 Wyclif 2 Sam. vi. 14 Dauid..daunside with all strengthis bifor the Lord. 1483 Caxton Gold. Leg. 147/3 He..sente them into the gardyn to daunse & to carolle. 1530 Palsgr. 361 After dynner men avaunced them to daunce eche man with eche woman. 1632 Milton L'Allegro 96 Many a youth and many a maid Dancing in the chequer'd shade. 1712 Steele Spect. No. 466 ¶3 You shall see her dance, or, if you will do her that Honour, dance with her. 1884 M. E. Braddon Ishmael ix, I never danced with any one in my life until to-day. I have danced by myself in the yard sometimes when there was an organ. |
† b. to dance barefoot: said of an elder sister when a younger one was married before her.
Obs.| 1596 Shakes. Tam. Shr. ii. i. 33 She must haue a husband; I must dance bare-foot on her wedding day, And for your loue to her leade Apes in hell. 1742 Mrs. Delany Life & Corr. (1861) II. 188 The eldest daughter was much disappointed that she should dance barefoot, and desired her father to find out a match for her. |
c. Of animals taught to perform certain regular movements.
| c 1530 Hickscorner in Hazl. Dodsley I. 184 Then should ye dance as a bear. 1854 Wood Anim. Life 210 The education of most bears seldom aspires beyond teaching the animal to stand on its hind legs, and raise each foot alternately, a performance popularly entitled ‘dancing’. |
d. transf. and
fig.| c 1430 Lydg. Bochas i. viii. (1544) 11 a, Beware afore or ye daunce in the rowe Of such as Fortune hath from her whele ithrow. 1613 Shakes. Hen. VIII, v. iv. 68, I haue some of 'em in Limbo Patrum, and there they are like to dance these three dayes. |
e. to dance to or after (a person's) pipe, whistle, etc.:
fig. to follow his lead, act after his desire or instigation.
| 1562 J. Heywood Prov. & Epigr. (1867) 61 To daunce after her pipe, I am ny led. 1604 Middleton Father Hubb. Tales Wks. 1886 VIII. 65 Till the old devourer..death, had made our landlord dance after his pipe. 1707 Norris Treat. Humility iii. 98 When a man..dances to the tune of the age wherein he lives. 1823 Scott Peveril vii, I thought I had the prettiest girl in the Castle dancing after my whistle. 1845 S. Austin Ranke's Hist. Ref. I. 523 That most of these councillors..will ‘dance to Rome's piping’, if they do but see her gold. |
2. To leap, skip, spring, or move up and down, with continuously recurring movement, from excitement or strong emotion. Said also of the lively skipping or prancing of animals, and of the heart, the blood in the veins, etc.
| c 1325 E.E. Allit. P. A. 345 Þoȝ þou daunce as any do, Braundysch, & brais þy braþez breme. c 1400–50 Alexander 2618 For þe dowt of þe dyn daunced stedis. 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 291 Some were constrayned to leape and daunce for ioye. 1553 Eden Treat. Newe Ind. (Arb.) 21 The woman runneth vp and down, daunsing continually like a frantike bodie. 1611 Shakes. Wint. T. i. ii. 110, I haue Tremor Cordis on me: my heart daunces, But not for ioy. a 1720 Sheffield (Dk. Buckhm.) Wks. (1753) I. 160 The blood more lively danc'd within our veins. 1792 S. Rogers Pleas. Mem. i. 142 When the heart danced, and life was in its spring. 1821 Lamb. Elia, Valentine's Day, He saw, unseen, the happy girl unfold the Valentine, dance about, clap her hands. 1859 Tennyson Enid 505 Yniol's heart Danced in his bosom, seeing better days. |
b. To run, go, or move on with dancing or tripping motion.
| 1712 Arbuthnot John Bull i. x, How you have danced the round of all the Courts. 1820 Scott Abbot xxiv, The moments..danced so rapidly away. Ibid. xxxiv, Some sprightly damsel, who thinks to dance through life as through a French galliard. 1872 Black Adv. Phaeton ii. 20 These boys of twenty-five will dance over the world's edge in pursuit of a theory. |
3. Of things inanimate: To bob up and down on the ground, on the surface of water, in the air, etc. Often with personification or figurative reference to gay and sprightly motion.
| 1563 W. Fulke Meteors (1640) 7 b, The flame appeareth to leape or daunce from one part to the other, much like as bals of wild fire daunce up and downe in the water. 1567 Drant Horace's Epist. xviii. F vj, Whilst thy ship doth kepe a flote, ydauncinge on the plaine. 1665 Hooke Microgr. 231 Why the limb of the Sun, Moon, Jupiter..and Venus, appear to move or dance. 1703 Moxon Mech. Exerc. 135 Care must be taken that the Bressummers and Girders be not weakned more than needs, lest the whole Floor dance. 1812 H. & J. Smith Rej. Addr., Cui bono? iv, Light as the mote that daunceth in the beam. 1884 Queen Victoria More Leaves 138 The little boat rolled and danced. |
b. Grimly applied to the movements of the body in or after death by hanging;
to dance upon nothing, to be hanged.
| 1837 Major Richardson Brit. Legion viii. (ed. 2) 210 To see a fellow-being dancing in air after death, in the manner practised in England. 1839 H. Ainsworth Jack Sheppard xxxi. (Farmer), ‘You'll dance upon nothing, presently’, rejoined Jonathan, brutally. 1862 Carlyle Fredk. Gt. (1865) III. viii. iv. 21 This poor soldier, six feet three, your Majesty, is to dance on the top of nothing for a three-halfpenny matter! |
4. trans. with the name or description of a dance or measure as cognate object.
| c 1385 Chaucer L.G.W. Prol. 200 (MS. Gg) Daunsynge aboute this flour an esy pas. 1509 Hawes Past. Pleas. xvi. xix, To daunce true mesures without varyaunce. 1599 Porter Angry Wom. Abingd. iii. ii, They have danced a galliard at beggars'-bush for it. a 1627 Middleton Chaste Maid iv. iii, As if they'd dance the sword-dance on the stage. 1762 Goldsm. Nash Wks. 1881 IV. 69 A minuet, danced by two persons. 1844 E. Fitzgerald Lett. (1889) I. 142 If you could see the little girl dance the Polka with her sister! |
† b. to dance Barnaby: to dance to a quick movement, move expeditiously.
to dance the Tyburn jig: to be hanged:
cf. 3 b.
Obs.| 1664 Cotton Scarron. 15 Bounce cries the Port-hole, out they fly And make the world dance Barnaby. 1664 G. Etherege Com. Revenge v. ii, Widow, here is music; send for a parson, and we will dance Barnaby within this half hour. 1697 Vanbrugh Relapse Epil., Did ever one yet dance the Tyburn jig With a free air, or a well-pawdered wig? |
5. to dance attendance: to wait (upon a person) with assiduous attention and ready obsequiousness;
orig. to stand waiting or ‘kicking one's heels’ in an antechamber. See also
attendance 5.
| 1522 Skelton Why not to Court 626 And Syr ye must daunce attendance, And take patient sufferaunce, For my Lords Grace, Hath now no time or space, To speke with you as yet. 1613 Shakes. Hen. VIII, v. ii. 31 To suffer A man of Place..To dance attendance on their Lordships pleasures, And at the dore too, like a Post with Packets. 1675 Traherne Chr. Ethics xxv. 380 Few have observed that the sun and moon and stars dance attendance to it [the earth], and cherish it with their influences. 1768 Gray in Corr. w. Nicholls (1843) 75 Here are a pair of your stray shoes, dancing attendance, till you send for them. 1883 Gilmour Mongols xxxi. 362 After dancing attendance on the court for a month or two they receive their dismission. |
6. causal.
a. To lead in a dance, cause to dance.
| 1665 Pepys Diary 11 Oct., Having danced my people as long as I saw fit to sit up, I to bed. 1762 Sterne Tr. Shandy VI. ii, When my father had danced his white bear backwards and forwards, through half-a-dozen pages. 1773 Goldsm. Stoops to Conq. 1, Though I am obligated to dance a bear, a man may be a gentleman for all that. |
b. To move or toss up and down with a dancing jerky motion; to dandle.
| Wyclif Isa. lxvi. 12 Vp on the knes men shul daunte [MS. H. a 1450 daunsen] ȝou. 1546 Heywood Proverbs ii. x, In hope..In hir dotyng daies to be daunst on the lappe. 1622 Fletcher Sp. Curate ii. i, I have dandled you, and kissed you, and played with you..and danced you. 1681 W. Robertson Phraseol. Gen. (1693) 418 To dance a child in one's arms. 1773 F. Burney Early Diary July, It was no sport to me to be danced up and down, and to find the waves..rougher every instant. 1850 Tennyson In Mem. Epil., I that danced her on my knee. |
7. With
compl.: To remove, put, bring, impel, etc.,
off,
away,
out,
in, etc., by dancing.
| a 1633 Austin Medit. (1635) 208 So was the blessed head of John..danced off his shoulders by a Harlot. 1787 Generous Attachment I. 200, I danced away the recollection of it. 1812 Byron Waltz vii, Her nimble feet danced off another's head. 1862 Merivale Rom. Emp. (1865) VI. l. 169 That an obscure player..should dance himself into the chamber of the empress. 1880 G. Meredith Trag. Com. iv. (1892) 29 Like a lady danced off her sense of fixity. Mod. I fear he has danced away his chance. |