one-step

[ wuhn-step ]

/ ˈwʌnˌstɛp /

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR one-step ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

a round dance performed by couples to ragtime.

a piece of music for this dance.

verb (used without object)

to dance the one-step.

Nearby words

one-shot, one-sided, one-size-fits-all, one-spot, one-star, one-step, one-stop, one-suiter, one-tailed, one-time, one-to-one

Origin of one-step

First recorded in 1910–15

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for one-step

His life as the child of a vaudeville couple was one-step above living in the circus—cheap hotels and rooming houses were home.
Mickey Rooney Was Hollywood’s Golden Age Showman|Lorenza Muñoz|April 7, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Elderly ladies loved to have him one-step with them and squeeze their elbows.
The Innocents|Sinclair Lewis
So they danced a one-step, and Joe managed to get through it without treading on anybodys toe.
Boy Scouts in Glacier Park|Walter Prichard Eaton
One-step, fox-trot and a Lulu Fado followed in smooth succession.
A Man's Hearth|Eleanor M. Ingram

There is always much dancing, for the natives are great dancers and were not the last to learn the one-step and hesitation.
The Spell of the Hawaiian Islands and the Philippines|Isabel Anderson
The ragtime had a cracked, heart-broken rhythm as though it were a one-step of despair.
The Trembling of a Leaf|William Somerset Maugham

British Dictionary definitions for one-step

one-step

noun

an early 20th-century ballroom dance with long quick steps, the precursor of the foxtrot

a piece of music composed for or in the rhythm of this dance

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012