arabesque
Americannoun
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Fine Arts. a sinuous, spiraling, undulating, or serpentine line or linear motif.
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a pose in ballet in which the dancer stands on one leg with one arm extended in front and the other leg and arm extended behind.
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a short, fanciful musical piece, typically for piano.
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any ornament or ornamental object, as a rug or mosaic, in which flowers, foliage, fruits, vases, animals, and figures are represented in a fancifully combined pattern.
adjective
noun
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ballet a classical position in which the dancer has one leg raised behind and both arms stretched out in one of several conventional poses
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music a piece or movement with a highly ornamented or decorated melody
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arts
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a type of curvilinear decoration in painting, metalwork, etc, with intricate intertwining leaf, flower, animal, or geometrical designs
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a design of flowing lines
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adjective
Other Word Forms
- arabesquely adverb
Etymology
Origin of arabesque
1605–15; < French < Italian arabesco ornament in Islamic style, literally, Arabian, equivalent to Arab ( o ) Arab ( def. ) + -esco -esque
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Ruble perfected her movements in sync with the music and the other dancers, her head tilted at just the right angle, her arabesque hitting the correct line, her discipline and note-taking clearly paying off.
From Los Angeles Times
The lines curl into dense molars and concise arabesques, like visual mantras, repeated to form airy mandalas.
From New York Times
This meditative adagio is the work’s longest movement, and Olafsson stretched its darkling arabesques to more than 10 minutes.
From New York Times
This was classic couture — in sandstone tulle, sky-like lilac, blush cloud pink and dappled pastels — with arabesque motifs on golden foliage.
From Seattle Times
There, McRae hits a perilous arabesque pose on top of a weight bench and moodily drives a Zamboni over an ice rink.
From Los Angeles Times
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
