dance

name

1. A surname.

noun

Etymology: Related to dancy, dancetté, French danché.

1. A normally horizontal stripe called a fess that has been modified to zig-zag across the center of a coat of arms from dexter to sinister.

   “The fact appears to have been that Simon de Montacute bore two coats; the one, Argent, three fusils, which it is most probable was a corruption of a fess dancette, or a dance, Gules; and the other, Azure, a griffin segreant[…]”

   “It is as follows - being headed by a shield of arms in colours - gold with a dance gules between three croslets fitchy gules.”

verb

Etymology: Etymology tree Vulgar Latin *dantiāreder. Anglo-Norman dauncerbor. Middle English dauncen English dance 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). Doublet of danza.

1. To move with rhythmic steps or movements, especially in time to music.

   “I danced with her all night long.”

   “These drum beats are making me dance!”

2. To leap or move lightly and rapidly.

   “His eyes danced with pleasure as he spoke. She accused her political opponent of dancing around the issue instead of confronting it.”

   “And woods along the banks are waving high, / Whose shadows in the glassy waters dance,”

3. To perform the steps to.

   “Have you ever danced the tango?”

4. To cause to dance, or move nimbly or merrily about.

   “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.”

   “Thy grandsire loved thee well; / Many a time he danced thee on his knee.”

5. To make love or have sex.

   “You make me feel like dancing.”

6. To make a repetitive movement in order to communicate to other worker honey bees.

   “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.”

7. To kick and convulse from the effects of being hanged.

   “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.”

   “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.”