glissade
Americannoun
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a skillful glide over snow or ice in descending a mountain, as on skis or a toboggan.
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Dance. a sliding or gliding step.
verb (used without object)
noun
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a gliding step in ballet, in which one foot slides forwards, sideways, or backwards
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a controlled slide down a snow slope
verb
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of glissade
1830–40; < French, equivalent to gliss ( er ) to slip, slide + -ade -ade 1
Vocabulary lists containing glissade
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.
See Examples For:
But the body found Monday was a bit south of the spot where hikers typically glissade — on a steep, icy section of trail known as the 99 Switchbacks, according to Stine.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 15, 2025
From hiking a few miles to learning how to use an ice ax and glissade down a mountain, we trained and grew stronger together to ultimately reach the summit.
From Seattle Times ● May 20, 2022
She went to see Lauren Anderson — one of the first black ballerinas to become a principal dancer in a major company — glissade across the stage at the Houston Ballet.
From New York Times ● Oct. 15, 2018
You reverse what you tried for going up and aim for the sandiest places in order to glissade down.
From Slate ● Oct. 22, 2014
Still, the glissade was one of Nancy's favorite steps.
From "The Cinderella Ballet Mystery: Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew, #4" by Carolyn Keene
But as I glissaded down the slope, it seemed to me also that a part of him might be pleased by our gesture, simply as an indication that his books had gotten read.
From Slate ● Oct. 22, 2014
Once we seemed to have escaped and glissaded swiftly down.
From Leaves in the Wind by A. G. (Alfred George) Gardiner
Happily we had an easy course down a snow gradient, which we glissaded in very unorthodox style.
From Mr. Standfast by John Buchan
Then slipping, feet foremost off the ledge, he glissaded down on his back, bending his knees at the exact moment when his feet thudded heavily on to the sand.
From The Mistress of Shenstone by Florence L. (Florence Louisa) Barclay
Regulus wriggled from side to side, glissaded down one dune, up another.
From The Tarn of Eternity by Frank Tymon
At about 7 a.m., around 300 dancers — boys and girls, men and women — took turns glissading across the concrete at 44th Street and Seventh Avenue, which was transformed into a scene from “Fame.”
From New York Times ● Aug. 26, 2019
They roll out a cake for the dancing duos, who pucker up and blow out the candles before glissading into a waltz.
From Time Magazine Archive
Now they can, on a U.S. tour with the Ice Capades, which features the pair glissading and grinning all the way.
From Time Magazine Archive
When you are glissading down a snowy Alpine slope, you cannot stop when you like, though you strike your alpenstock ever so deep into the powdery snow.
From Expositions of Holy Scripture Isaiah and Jeremiah by Alexander Maclaren
Small boys and girls amuse themselves with glissading down the steep grassy slopes.
From The Mafulu Mountain People of British New Guinea by Robert Wood Williamson
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.
