dance

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. v. To move rhythmically usually to music, using prescribed or improvised steps and gestures.
2. v. To leap or skip about excitedly.
3. v. To appear to flash or twinkle: eyes that danced with merriment.
4. v. Informal To appear to skip about; vacillate: danced around the issue.
5. v. To bob up and down.
6. v. To engage in or perform (a dance).
7. v. To cause to dance.
8. v. To bring to a particular state or condition by dancing: My partner danced me to exhaustion.
9. n. A series of motions and steps, usually performed to music.
10. n. The art of dancing: studied dance in college.
11. n. A party or gathering of people for dancing; a ball.
12. n. One round or turn of dancing: May I have this dance?
13. n. A musical or rhythmical piece composed or played for dancing.
14. n. The act or an instance of dancing.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. To leap or spring with regular or irregular steps, as an expression of some emotion; move or act quiveringly from excitement: as, he danced with joy.
2. To move nimbly or quickly with an irregular leaping motion; bound up and down: as, the blow he gave the table made the dishes dance; the mote dancing in the sunbeam.
3. To move the body or the feet rhythmically to music, either by one's self or with a partner or in a set; perform the series of cadenced steps and rhythmic movements which constitute a dance; engage or take part in a dance.
4. To give a dancing motion to; cause to move up and down with a jerky, irregular motion; dandle.
5. To perform or take part in as a dancer; execute, or take part in executing, the cadenced steps or regulated movements which constitute (some particular dance): as, to dance a quadrille or a hornpipe.
6. To lead or conduct with a tripping, dancing movement.
7. n. A succession of more or less regularly ordered steps and movements of the body, commonly guided by the rhythmical intervals of a musical accompaniment; any leaping or gliding movement with more or less regular steps and turnings, expressive of or designed to awaken some emotion. The dance is perhaps the earliest and most spontaneous mode of expressing emotion and dramatic feeling; it exists in a great variety of forms, and is among some people connected with religious belief and practice, as among the Mohammedans and Hindus. Modern dances include the jig, hornpipe, etc., step-dances executed by one person; the waltz, polka, schottische, etc., danced by pairs, and nsually called round dances; the reel, quadrille, etc., usually called square dances, danced by an even number of pairs; the country-dance, in which any number of pairs may take part; and the cotillion or german, consisting of many intricate figures, in the execution of which the waltz-movement predominates.
8. n. A tune by which dancing is regulated, as the minuet, the waltz, the cotillion, etc.
9. n. A dancing-party; a ball; a “hop.”
10. n. Figuratively, progressive or strenuous movement of any kind; a striving or struggling motion: often used by old writers in a sarcastic sense, especially in the phrases the new daunce, the old daunce.
11. In the West Indies, especially Trinidad, to clean and polish (cacao) by treading it with the naked feet. The friction caused by the treading removes the mildew from the outside of the beans and at the same time polishes them.

Wiktionary

1. n. A sequence of rhythmic steps or movements usually performed to music, for pleasure or as a form of social interaction.
2. n. A social gathering where dancing is designed to take place.
3. n. heraldry A fess that has been modified to zig-zag across the center of a coat of arms from dexter to sinister.
4. n. A genre of modern music characterised by sampled beats, repetitive rhythms and few lyrics.
5. n. uncountable The art, profession, and study of dancing.
6. v. intransitive To move with rhythmic steps or movements, especially in time to music.
7. v. intransitive To leap or move lightly and rapidly.
8. v. transitive To perform the steps to.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. v. To move with measured steps, or to a musical accompaniment; to go through, either alone or in company with others, with a regulated succession of movements, (commonly) to the sound of music; to trip or leap rhythmically.
2. v. To move nimbly or merrily; to express pleasure by motion; to caper; to frisk; to skip about.
3. v. To cause to dance, or move nimbly or merrily about, or up and down; to dandle.
4. n. The leaping, tripping, or measured stepping of one who dances; an amusement, in which the movements of the persons are regulated by art, in figures and in accord with music.
5. n. (Mus.) A tune by which dancing is regulated, as the minuet, the waltz, the cotillon, etc.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. an artistic form of nonverbal communication
2. n. taking a series of rhythmical steps (and movements) in time to music
3. v. move in a graceful and rhythmical way
4. v. move in a pattern; usually to musical accompaniment; do or perform a dance
5. n. a party for social dancing
6. v. skip, leap, or move up and down or sideways
7. n. a party of people assembled for dancing