danse macabre
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of danse macabre
From French
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.
In contrast to the danse macabre sequences at the deathbed, Jill overhears the “celebratory sound” of a neighbor’s back yard evening wedding by torchlight.
From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 26, 2026
Written for the Isarphilharmonie, the work explored opposites of sound: the full might of the ensemble in a danse macabre versus a chamber group from just the principal strings.
From New York Times • Oct. 12, 2021
“It’s never particularly good news for the world when March’s shivery danse macabre of a poem threatens to come back in vogue,” Harris notes.
From New York Times • Sep. 6, 2021
His body of work is a long danse macabre between fiction and reality.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 9, 2021
And then he lay there as the danse macabre of the demons of fear that lived in his body began in earnest.
From "The Great Santini" by Pat Conroy
![]()
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.