dance of death

American  

noun

1. a symbolic dance in which Death, represented as a skeleton, leads people or skeletons to their grave.

2. a representation of this theme in art.

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dance of death British  

noun

1. Also called (French): danse macabre.  a pictorial, literary, or musical representation, current esp in the Middle Ages, of a dance in which living people, in order of social precedence, are led off to their graves, by a personification of death

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Etymology

Origin of dance of death

First recorded in 1470–80

Example Sentences

But the real dance of death in Tennessee Williams’s play isn’t between the two of them: It’s between Blanche and her sister, Stella.

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 14, 2025

So, in Moonfall, as the moon spirals closer and closer to the Earth in a dance of death and destruction, the lunar gravitational pull on our planet increases, leading to massive floods.

From Slate • Feb. 4, 2022

But the reality was no dance of death.

From New York Times • Aug. 18, 2021

In being the deadliest dance of death, Scriabin’s Ninth Sonata comes to stand for life.

From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 21, 2020

The dance of death sweeps us into its circle.

From "Blood on the River" by Elisa Carbone