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
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
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
It would be unreasonable to expect an old archbishop to dance a jig and rigadoon with boys and girls; it is certain that the Greek and Latin are such when compared with the Celtic.
From Some Specimens of the Poetry of the Ancient Welsh Bards by Evans, Evan
We possess the means of verifying somewhat as to the nature of the minuet; but after what fashion did our revered grandfather do his rigadoon and his gavot?
From The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce, Volume 8 Epigrams, On With the Dance, Negligible Tales by Bierce, Ambrose
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.
