cancan
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of cancan
1840–50; < French, repetitive compound (based on can ) said to be nursery variant of canard duck; see canard
Vocabulary lists containing cancan
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.
See Examples For:
It built a reputation for hosting whirlwind nights and extravagant shows, and its dancers played a paramount role in bringing the frenzied style of the modern cancan dance to the mainstream.
From New York Times ● Apr. 25, 2024
It is relatively quiet — Picasso would also paint cancan dancers, but not now — a suave, sophisticated crowd painted by an artist who understood its fashions, body language and interpersonal connections perfectly.
From New York Times ● May 11, 2023
Though she’s happy enough with her job as a costumed cancan dancer in a Wild West theme park, necessity drives her toward a new career: private investigator.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 11, 2023
Exuberant cancan melodies from the film soundtracks filtered through the galleries, seeming to animate Lautrec’s imagery.
From Washington Post ● Nov. 11, 2019
I did not learn the cancan, but I did learn the fandango, the czardas, and the Highland fling, with many another national dance.
From 'O Thou, My Austria!' by Schubin, Ossip
Before the wedding, she did playful cancans in the vestry and, because it was a cold, snowy day, she remembers: "I put on my father's Long Johns under my wedding dress."
From Time Magazine Archive
It fetches up a lot of gay, happy dancing, much of it with a period touch of cancans and cakewalks.
From Time Magazine Archive
She knows better than to believe cancans, and has slept the sleep of the angels.
From The Maid of Honour (Vol. 3 of 3) A Tale of the Dark Days of France by Wingfield, Lewis
There seems, however, really no end to cancans at Paris; for the Duke of Cambridge seems to have shared the same fate.
From The Letters of Queen Victoria : A Selection from Her Majesty's Correspondence between the Years 1837 and 1861 Volume 3, 1854-1861 by Benson, Arthur Christopher
“Quoi v’la tous les cancans d’la s’maine!” sang Gertrude, a proud damsel, who was looking roguishly askance at the Captain-General.
From The Reign of Greed by Derbyshire, Charles E.
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.
