ghost dance

noun

1. a ritual dance intended to establish communion with the dead, especially such a dance as performed by various messianic western American Indian cults in the late 19th century.

ghost dance

noun

1. a religious dance of certain North American Indians, connected with a political movement (from about 1888) that looked to reunion with the dead and a return to an idealized state of affairs before Europeans came

Word History and Origins

Origin of ghost dance¹

An Americanism dating back to 1885–90