barn dance

See synonyms for barn dance on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. a social gathering, originally held in a barn, and including square dances, round dances, and hoedown music.

  2. any party featuring country dances, dress, music, etc.

Origin of barn dance

1
An Americanism dating back to 1890–95

Words Nearby barn dance

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use barn dance in a sentence

  • The band was playing, slowly, as is the dancing-fashion of the North, that barn dance; and almost every girl was in white.

    Mushroom Town | Oliver Onions
  • Are you clean daffy, doin' a barn dance around that rusty capstan, makin' a noise fit to frighten the fish?

    Captain Scraggs | Peter B. Kyne
  • It was at a country barn dance during these few days that he met Moyra Dolan.

    The Wind Bloweth | Brian Oswald Donn-Byrne
  • "And women pet them; they'd prefer a fool who can pot rabbits and do a barn-dance to Homer himself," growled Yate.

    Love's Usuries | Louis Creswicke
  • It was the day that Annixter had chosen for his barn-dance and, in consequence, Quien Sabe was in fete and work suspended.

    The Octopus | Frank Norris

British Dictionary definitions for barn dance

barn dance

noun
  1. British a progressive round country dance

  2. US and Canadian a party with hoedown music and square-dancing

  1. a party featuring country dancing

  2. a disco or party held in a barn

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012