dance attendance on

1. Wait on attentively and obsequiously, obey someone's every wish or whim. For example, He expected his secretary to dance attendance on him so she quit her job. This expression alludes to the old custom of making a bride dance with every wedding guest. In the 1500s it was used first to mean “await” an audience with someone, but by about 1600 it had acquired its present meaning. Also see at someone's beck and call.

Example Sentences

Servants dance attendance on this obstreperous youngster, whose haughtiness is no doubt inflamed by her cold, aristocratic mother and distracted military captain father.

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She otherwise prides herself on a low-maintenance approach to red carpet preparations, dispensing with the retinue of stylists, groomers and assorted handlers who customarily dance attendance on the stars.

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He began to dance attendance on his crew as if they were patients and he their doctor.

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You've just got back from the other end of the town, tired and hungry, and off you run again, without eating a morsel, to dance attendance on her.

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And like the cold-blooded coquette that you are, you've made Ralph Kindelon leave poor Cora Dares, who's madly in love with him, and dance attendance on yourself.

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