minuet

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A slow, stately pattern dance in 3/4 time for groups of couples, originating in 17th-century France.
2. n. The music for or in the rhythm of the minuet.
3. n. A movement in 3/4 time that is usually the third, but sometimes the second, of a four-movement symphony or string quartet.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A slow and graceful dance, invented, probably in Poitou, France, about the middle of the seventeenth century. Throughout the eighteenth century it was “he most popular of the more stately and ceremonious dances.
2. n. Music for such a dance, or in its rhythm, which is triple and slow. Minuets are frequently found in the old suite, and also in the later sonata and symphony. They properly consist of two contrasted sections of sixteen measures each, the second of which is generally called a trio, because originally written for hut three instruments; but this regular form is often considerably modifled. Beethoven was the first to replace the minuet in the sonata and the symphony by the scherzo, which resembled the minuet somewhat in rhythm, hut was more sprightly and unrestricted in form and spirit.

Wiktionary

1. n. A slow graceful dance consisting of a coupé, a high step, and a balance.
2. n. music A tune or air to regulate the movements of the minuet dance: it has the dance form, and is commonly in 3/4, sometimes 3/8, measure.
3. n. music A complete short musical composition inspired by and conforming to many formal characteristics of the traditional musical accompaniment to the dance of same name.
4. n. music A movement which is part of a longer musical composition such as a suite, sonata, or symphony which is inspired by and conforming to formal characteristics of the dance of same name.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A slow graceful dance consisting of a coupee, a high step, and a balance.
2. n. (Mus.) A tune or air to regulate the movements of the dance so called; a movement in suites, sonatas, symphonies, etc., having the dance form, and commonly in 3-4, sometimes 3-8, measure.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a stately piece of music composed for dancing the minuet; often incorporated into a sonata or suite
2. n. a stately court dance in the 17th century