rigadoon
Americannoun
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a lively dance, formerly popular, for one couple, characterized by a jumping step and usually in quick duple meter.
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a piece of music for this dance or in its rhythm.
noun
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an old Provençal couple dance, light and graceful, in lively duple time
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a piece of music for or in the rhythm of this dance
Etymology
Origin of rigadoon
1685–95; < French rigaudon, perhaps from name Rigaud
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.
An indignant captain looks like “he’d just been asked if he danced the rigadoon or played the hurdy-gurdy.”
From New York Times ● Sep. 22, 2022
This might be true if The Wonder Bar were really a night box where one could attend the entertainment and at the same time, eat, drink, rigadoon and speak freely with friends.
From Time Magazine Archive
All night long shouting crowds surged up & down under the huge plane trees of the ramblas to rigadoon round the statue of Christopher Columbus and back up the hill again.
From Time Magazine Archive
They glided past, they glided fast, Like travelers through a mist: They mocked the moon in a rigadoon Of delicate turn and twist, And with formal pace and loathsome grace The phantoms kept their tryst.
From Ballad of Reading Gaol by Oscar Wilde
Guardian, No. 154: "We danced a rigadoon together."
From The Tatler, Volume 1, 1899 by George A. Aitken
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