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
It was pouring downward—pouring itself downward—in a glorious, relentless glissade over the meadow slopes on a straight path for the village.
From "Strange the Dreamer" by Laini Taylor
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
We sat down and glissaded in the dark with only the vaguest idea where we should end.
From Running Water by A. E. W. (Alfred Edward Woodley) Mason
Where the slopes were not seamed with open crevasses we "glissaded," which is a very expeditious and exhilarating method of getting down a mountain, although unsafe unless one is certain of his ground.
From McClure's Magazine, Vol. 6, No. 6, May, 1896 by Various
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 Percival Lowell
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 Edward Whymper
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
Here her delight in the exhilarating exercise of glissading landed her in a danger which, but for the presence of mind of Mr. Snepp, must have ended fatally to herself and one of the guides.
From Excellent Women by Various
In a minute, he was up again and off, sliding, leaping from hummock to hummock, glissading down the little inclines, speeding like a winged Mercury of the North.
From The Wilderness Trail by Frank Williams
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