medicine dance
Americannoun
Etymology
Origin of medicine dance
First recorded in 1800–10
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.
Occasionally there was a medicine dance away off in the woods where no one could disturb us, in which the boys impersonated their elders, Brave Bull, Standing Elk, High Hawk, Medicine Bear, and the rest.
From Indian Boyhood by Eastman, Charles Alexander
The medicine dance is carried on chiefly to celebrate the skill of the "Medicine-man" in curing diseases.
From Wau-bun The Early Day in the Northwest by Kinzie, Juliette Augusta Magill
One of the wonderful things done by this man was at a medicine dance.
From Pawnee Hero Stories and Folk-Tales With notes on the origin, customs and character of the Pawnee people by Grinnell, George Bird
Cloudy Sky could not, according to the laws of the Sioux, throw off his mourning, until he had killed an enemy or given a medicine dance.
From Dahcotah Life and Legends of the Sioux Around Fort Snelling by Eastman, Mary H. (Mary Henderson)
The object of the medicine dance is to work up the dancer to a state of trance, in which he receives a revelation in regard to the matter under consideration.
From The Arrow-Maker A Drama in Three Acts by Austin, Mary Hunter
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.
