Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A gliding step in ballet.
  • noun A controlled slide, in either a standing or sitting position, used in descending a steep icy or snowy incline.
  • intransitive verb To perform a glissade.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In music, same as glissando.
  • To slide; glide.
  • noun The act of sliding, as on ice; a slide.
  • noun In dancing, a sliding or gliding step to the right or left.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A sliding, as down a snow slope.
  • noun A dance step consisting of a glide or slide to one side.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A sliding, as down a snow slope in the Alps (Wikipedia).
  • noun ballet A gliding step beginning and ending in a demi-plié in second position (Wikipedia).
  • noun A move in some dances such as the galop (Wikipedia).
  • noun fencing A fencing move that may disarm the opponent (Wikipedia).
  • verb To perform a glissade.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun (ballet) a gliding or sliding step in ballet
  • verb perform a glissade, in ballet

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French, from glisser, to slide, from Old French, possibly alteration (influenced by glacer, to slide) of glier, to glide, of Germanic origin; see ghel- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French glisser, "to slip".

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word glissade.

Examples

  • Probably the most beautiful spectacle ever afforded by the natural world is that of a complete and far-reaching ice-storm, locally known as a glissade, transcending in delicate aerial fantasy the swiftly changing faint green panorama of early spring or the amber hazes of opulent autumn.

    Ringfield A Novel 1897

  • It seemed as if by a kind of glissade the chain of icebergs had drawn nearer to the island.

    The Fur Country 1874

  • We immediately took to the word because "glissade," said with just a hint of indeterminate European accent, sounded more respectable than "sliding on our backsides down the face of a snowy mountainside with our snowshoes splayed out in front of us and our poles dragging ingloriously behind."

    NYT > Travel 2009

  • We immediately took to the word because "glissade," said with just a hint of indeterminate European accent, sounded more respectable than "sliding on our backsides down the face of a snowy mountainside with our snowshoes splayed out in front of us and our poles dragging ingloriously behind."

    NYT > Travel 2009

  • We immediately took to the word because "glissade," said with just a hint of indeterminate European accent, sounded more respectable than "sliding on our backsides down the face of a snowy mountainside with our snowshoes splayed out in front of us and our poles dragging ingloriously behind."

    NYT > Travel 2009

  • And glissade that was sarcasm. markg8 wrote on February 20, 2007 11: 48 PM:

    Election Central | Talking Points Memo | Heckler To Romney: "You Do Not Know The Lord" 2009

  • | Reply | Permalink puissant 0 glissade 0 DavidBAnimal 0 Plowboy 0

    An Obama Foreign Policy Adviser Clarifies Senator's Views 2009

  • Walton brilliantly captures the glissade from compromise to compromise that leads to dystopia, and the courage of decent people who are betrayed by the laws and people they trust.

    Farthing 2007

  • The notes washed over her a sparkling glissade carrying her up and out, her soul expanding into the immensity of the moment into the all enveloping love that was the great hall and she found herself at peace.

    Glissando 2009

  • | Reply | Permalink glissade Obama has always been for public financing of elections.

    Report: Obama Successfully Wooing Some Former Hillary Donors 2009

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • A rapid mountaineering descent of sloped snow or ice fields, or portions of glaciers, as if on skis, whereby the mountaineer slides on his/her boot soles and uses an ice-axe as a rudder to aid in balance and steering.

    September 28, 2009