rigadoon
a lively dance, formerly popular, for one couple, characterized by a jumping step and usually in quick duple meter.
a piece of music for this dance or in its rhythm.
Origin of rigadoon
1- Also rigaudon, rig·o·don [rig-uh-don] /ˌrɪg əˈdɒn/ .
Words Nearby rigadoon
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
How to use rigadoon in a sentence
The dance itself is nothing; it might as well be called a rigadoon or a Sailor's Hornpipe, so far as the steps go.
Through the Mackenzie Basin | Charles MairTo build a city he had only to play a rigadoon and a minuet; but the other hero destroyed them by the sound of rams' horns.
Voltaire's Romances | Franois-Marie ArouetArm in arm, their sabots clogging, they did a rigadoon down the winding road.
The Ten-foot Chain | Achmed AbdullahShe would dance you a rigadoon or cut a pigeon's wing for you very respectably.
The Poet at the Breakfast Table | Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.And the Doctor looked as if he should like to rigadoon and sashy across as well as the young one he was talkin' about.
Elsie Venner | Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
British Dictionary definitions for rigadoon
rigaudon (French riɡodɔ̃)
/ (ˌrɪɡəˈduːn) /
an old Provençal couple dance, light and graceful, in lively duple time
a piece of music for or in the rhythm of this dance
Origin of rigadoon
1Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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