dos-à-dos
Americannoun
plural
dos-à-dosverb (used with or without object)
adverb
noun
-
a seat on which the users sit back to back
-
an alternative spelling of do-si-do
Etymology
Origin of dos-à-dos
1830–40; < French: back to back
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.
The automobile of the future will look no more like the motor car of to-day than the limousine of 1913 looks like the dos-à-dos of 1896.
From Scientific American • Jan. 13, 2013
Even then we should be no longer vis-à-vis as before, but dos-à-dos, almost on the instant of our approaching!
From The Wild Huntress Love in the Wilderness by Reid, Mayne
Some one kindly told him that they no longer danced dos-à-dos.
From Recollections of Europe by Cooper, James Fenimore
Should quadrilles be proposed, you will also be able to avoid those little dos-à-dos accidents which are by no means agreeable, and be qualified to pronounce, with tolerable certainty, which is your own partner.
From The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction Volume 14, No. 388, September 5, 1829 by Various
‘Right hand across! forward two; balancez; ladies chain; forward four; dos-à-dos; chassez to the right; cross over; all round;’ here, there, every where, and all over—he was up to it all.
From The Knickerbocker, or New-York Monthly Magazine, June 1844 Volume 23, Number 6 by Clark, Lewis Gaylord
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.