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 Gardiner, A. G. (Alfred George)
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 Barclay, Florence L. (Florence Louisa)
Notwithstanding this, they had boldly glissaded down the Couloir du Lion, J. J. Carrel having his shoeless foot tied up in a pocket handkerchief.
From The Ascent of the Matterhorn by Whymper, Edward
We glissaded down the first few hundred feet, till we brought up standing at the head of an incipient gorge, likewise smothered in snow.
From Noto: an Unexplained Corner of Japan by Lowell, Percival
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
“The snow is often a little treacherous in a place like this, herr; and as it is so loose we shall have to be careful about glissading when we get beyond the rocks yonder.”
From The Crystal Hunters A Boy's Adventures in the Higher Alps by Burton, Frederic William
A dark speck had suddenly detached itself from the ball upon which the vane stood, and could now be seen glissading with horrible swiftness down the slope of the spire.
From King John of Jingalo The Story of a Monarch in Difficulties by Housman, Laurence
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.
