contredanse
Americannoun
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a variation of the quadrille in which the dancers face each other.
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a piece of music suitable for such a dance.
noun
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a courtly Continental version of the English country dance, similar to the quadrille
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music written for or in the rhythm of this dance
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of contredanse
1795–1805; < French, equivalent to contre- counter- + danse dance, misrendering of English country-dance, by association with the characteristic arrangement of dancers in rows facing each other
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.
Many sections resemble contredanse or quadrille: ballroom arrangements of circles, lines, stars; dancers holding hands as they pass.
From New York Times • Dec. 9, 2022
The habanera and its contredanse antecedents had a highly distinctive accompanying rhythm of four beats, which in musical notation - as in the opening of the Bizet song - looks like this.
From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall
The French contredanse was borrowed from the English ‘country-dance’.
From English Past and Present by Palmer, Abram Smythe
Less than a month after mid-summer, the hour was not so much into morning, and there were some tireless votaries of Terpsichore inclined for still another contredanse, by way of wind up.
From No Quarter! by Reid, Mayne
The questions passing from lip to lip, late on in the night, and after another contredanse had come to a close.
From No Quarter! by Reid, Mayne
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.
