cakewalk
[keyk-wawk]
- (formerly) a promenade or march, of black American origin, in which the couples with the most intricate or eccentric steps received cakes as prizes.
- a dance with a strutting step based on this promenade.
- music for this dance.
- Informal. something easy, sure, or certain.
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- to walk or dance in or as if in a cakewalk.
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Origin of cakewalk
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for cakewalk
Contemporary Examples
Democrats still think that 2016 is going to be Clinton cakewalk.
If the Democrats maintain this charade, 2016 will not be the cakewalk they dream it to be.
But that does not, so far as Philippe Petit is concerned, make it a cakewalk.
Germany won a cakewalk, controlling the game from start to finish.
And that was a cakewalk compared to the three years I spent teaching high school!
Ad's Message to Moms: If You Don’t Think Parenting Sucks, You’re Doing it WrongAndy Hinds
April 18, 2014
Historical Examples
In Paris the cakewalk is a thing of misunderstood, misapplied accents.
Franz LisztJames Huneker
The matron, in the wickedness of her heart, turns on an orchestral "cakewalk."
London's UnderworldThomas Holmes
He tipped his derby one-sided and started off on a cakewalk.
A Good SamaritanMary Raymond Shipman Andrews
I know she can dance, for have I not seen her executing the cakewalk in Dimbie's tea-rose slippers?
Dimbie and I--and AmeliaMabel Barnes-Grundy
Men grasped each other around the waists, performing some kind of crazy dance that looked like an Indian cakewalk.
The Outdoor Girls in the SaddleLaura Lee Hope
cakewalk
- a dance based on a march with intricate steps, originally performed by African-Americans with the prize of a cake for the best performers
- a piece of music composed for this dance
- informal an easily accomplished task
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- (intr) to perform the cakewalk
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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
Word Origin and History for cakewalk
n.
1863, American English, from cake (n.) + walk (n.), probably in reference to the cake given as a prize for the fanciest steps in a procession in a Southern black custom (explained by Richard H. Thornton, 1912, as, "A walking competition among negroes," in which the prize cake goes to "the couple who put on most style"). Its figurative meaning of "something easy" (1863) is recorded before the literal one (1879). As a verb, from 1909. This may also be the source of the phrase to take the cake (1847).
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper