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contra dance. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
contra dance, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
contra dance in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
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English
Etymology
From French contredanse.
Noun
contra dance (plural contra dances)
- (dance) A type of folk dance style in which couples dance in two facing lines of indefinite length.
1836, [Catherine Gore], chapter VIII, in Mrs. Armytage; or, Female Domination. In Three Volumes, volume II, London: Henry Colburn, , →OCLC, page 134:he Duchess, and the dandies, and the member's wife and all the rest of their tribulations, were happily hidden from the view by the towering bouquets of the gold plateau vases at the head of the room. [...] A contra-dance after supper was felt to be a national duty; but behind those fatal vases a plot had already been concocted by the recondites for rewarding their previous self-denial, not by a quadrille, but a galoppe.
Translations
Verb
contra dance (third-person singular simple present contra dances, present participle contra dancing, simple past and past participle contra danced)
- To participate in a contra dance.