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• country-dance
  country-dance

  noun

  a dance of rural English origin in which the dancers form circles or squares or in which they face each other in two rows.
• country dance
  country dance

  noun

  a type of folk dance in which couples are arranged in sets and perform a series of movements, esp facing one another in a line

country-dance

American  

[kuhn-tree-dans, -dahns] / ˈkʌn triˌdæns, -ˌdɑns /

noun

1. a dance of rural English origin in which the dancers form circles or squares or in which they face each other in two rows.

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country dance British  

noun

1. a type of folk dance in which couples are arranged in sets and perform a series of movements, esp facing one another in a line

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Other Word Forms

• country dancing
  noun

Etymology

Origin of country-dance

First recorded in 1570–80

Example Sentences

Courses are as varied as English country-dance, the presidency and genealogy on the computer.

From Time Magazine Archive

Away went the band at once, and down the middle I flew with my partner, to the measure of a quick country-dance that no human legs could keep time to.

From Jack Hinton The Guardsman by Lever, Charles James

When she had gone through a Polish minuet and a single country-dance or schottische, she went away at once, after flashing through the room like a meteor.

From A Russian Gentleman by Aksakov, S. T. (Sergei Timofeevich)

I think Miss Fairfax dances very well; and Mrs. Weston is the very best country-dance player, without exception, in England.

From Emma by Austen, Jane

It was not quadrille dancing, nor minuet dancing, nor even country-dance dancing.

From The Battle of Life by Dickens, Charles