Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A full turn of the body on the point of the toe or the ball of the foot in ballet.
- v. To execute a pirouette.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. In dancing, a rapid whirling on one leg or on the points of the toes, as performed by ballet-dancers.
- n. In the manège, a quick, short turn or whirl of a horse.
- To perform a pirouette; turn or whirl on one leg, or on the toes, as in dancing; advance or move along in a series of pirouettes, or short graceful turns, as a horse.
- n. In old reed-instruments of the oboe class, the globular cup or bowl in which the reed was inclosed and which served as a kind of mouthpiece.
Wiktionary
- n. A whirling or turning on the toes in dancing, primarily in ballet.
- n. The whirling about of a horse.
- v. intransitive To perform a pirouette; to whirl on the toes, like a dancer.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A whirling or turning on the toes in dancing.
- n. (Man.) The whirling about of a horse.
- v. To perform a pirouette; to whirl, like a dancer.
WordNet 3.0
- n. (ballet) a rapid spin of the body (especially on the toes as in ballet)
- v. do a pirouette, usually as part of a dance
Etymologies
- French pirouette (Wiktionary)
- French, from Old French pirouet, spinning top. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“When a child at play stands on its head with its heels self-balanced in the air, making itself a pyramid instead of cutting a pirouette, that is, in the language of mothers and nurses, _far la”
“He twirled in a kind of pirouette to evade an oncoming attack, then jumped to perform a spin kick.”
Superhero Nation: how to write superhero novels and comic books » The Chozen’s Review Forum
“Harry doubled up with silent laughter as Crabbe did a kind of pirouette in midair, trying to see who had thrown it.”
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
“Widdecombe round in a style most often seen in primary school playgrounds; at one point grabbing hold of her ankle while she hopped round in a kind of pirouette, marabou dress trim bobbing, banana yellow leggings on display.”
“Here, English borrowed a group of linked terms from French, the language in which ballet was pursued and from which it gained international status: jeté, pas de deux, pirouette, and of course ballet itself are all from French.”
“If they catch the wave skilfully, the skimboard is pivoted by their strong limbs and they pirouette in an air-mixed broth of water and sand, and triumphantly ride their steeds back to the beach.”
Mexico's endless Pacific beach: sun, surf, sand, seafood and solitude
“I removed my cap to reveal a slipping hairstyle (going, going, almost gone) and did a pirouette, graceful as a walrus in ballerina tights.”
“Honestly, can anyone pirouette from amusing all-night benders to bruising human-right politics with quick, drawn-comic aplomb quite like NMA.tv?”
The Washington Post: STATE DINNER: Here's the animated Obama/Hu Jintao party you DIDN'T see...
“Watching my Siamese and Tuxedo cats leap, pounce, and pirouette mid-air, I am suddenly smiling -- and, most importantly, not taking myself so seriously.”
The Huffington Post: Brenda Peterson: What We Learn from Animals: How to Play
““Yes, I must say you did look well in that green,” Lacy said, watching us pirouette about the room.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘pirouette’.
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AGRI - horse breeding
place bet, Przewalski's horse, piaffe, genus Claviceps, stadium jumping, draft animal, snaffle bit, noseband, equestrian sport, endurance riding, curb bit, dressage and 678 more...
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Words sung by: Belle and Sebastian
beguiling, herbaceous, peninsula, suffragette, damascan, hastening, berserk, overtime, leccy, bestow, swathe, arab strap and 193 more...
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Dressage
A list of formal movements, exercises, terms and phrases, and words used in the art of dressage, horse-training, and judging.
turn on the haunches, shoulder-in, renvers, travers, half-pass, pirouette, turn on the forehand, shoulder-fore, leg-yield, collection, degree of collection, bend and 87 more...
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-ette
diminutive; female; substitute
dinette, suffragette, leatherette, baguette, bachelorette, brochette, casette, croquette, etiquette, gazette, launderette, leaflette and 2 more...
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Round and round she goes
Things to go around and things that go around.
mulberry bush, robin hood's barn, the rosie, the bend, the block a few t..., the corner, merry go round, roulette wheel, gyroscope, in circles, the world, the clock and 29 more...
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favored
visceral, twinkle, whalebone, incandescent, carousel, entangle, brevity, desolate, twirl, deltoid, graceless, tryst and 94 more...
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the most beautiful
velvet, wainwright, susurrous, nutmeg, pegasus, tintinnabular, gossamer, lyricism, rococo, townlet, prince, nymph and 139 more...
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madmelanie's Words
monkey, folderol, snark, snarky, flibbertigibbet, faith, asshat, pirouette, avuncular, exegesis, memento mori, verisimilitude and 379 more...
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Twitchy
The (not always so) smoovements; scattered, oscillating, jerky, and unpredictable.
palpitation, scravel, jactitate, pounce, wobble, vibrate, undulate, didder, effleurage, flail, ague, swerve and 169 more...
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Vocab++
Words as I learn them.
fetid, mezzanine, hiatus, austerity, subliminal, resplendent, implacable, impugn, debase, exiguous, cirque, holster and 2538 more...
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steve jobs
gussy, proselytize, callous, haberdasher, annal, brood, clemency, brooding, malleable, congenitally, comport, dichotomy and 8 more...
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To Learn
Words to learn via rote repetition.
atechnic, veridical, abjure, recrudescence, acquisitiveness, adipocere, alembic, adventitious, aliment, alimentiveness, amativeness, anterior and 111 more...
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GRE List
anthem, ablution, apocrypha, augur, cardinal, cathedral, chant, chapel, cloister, conformist, cult, devout and 145 more...
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mandarine's Words
antepenultimate, metonymy, synecdoche, pop, kern, inherit, clique, scrumptious, macerate, murmur, kerning, veranda and 1068 more...
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sionnach's Words
contumely, fomite, holmgang, poltroon, eleemosynary, obsidian, nugatory, grindcore, felch, recrudescent, pyx, parenteral and 3271 more...
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Damieng's Words
lupine, sapor, boz imp, imp, ovine, saracen, haberdashery, tiebar, shill, cutler, cutaway, lucite and 218 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for pirouette.
Prolagus ...Do something pretty while you can
Don't fall asleep
Skating a pirouette on ice is cool...
(We rule the school, by Belle and Sebastian) Sep 5, 2008