strathspey

American  

[strath-spey, strath-spey] / ˌstræθˈspeɪ, ˈstræθˌspeɪ /

noun

1. a slow Scottish dance in quadruple meter.

2. the music for this dance.

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strathspey British  

/ ˌstræθˈspeɪ /

noun

1. a Scottish dance with gliding steps, slower than a reel

2. a piece of music in four-four time composed for this dance

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Etymology

Origin of strathspey

First recorded in 1645–55; after Strath Spey, the valley of the river Spey in Scotland

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

strathspey

There was quite a large company there, very well employed in practicing the steps of a new strathspey, and others in exhibiting their special bits of splendor.

From Christine A Fife Fisher Girl by Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr

At a hundred we shall cut capers—for twenty years more keep to the Highland fling—and at the close of other twenty, jig it into the grave to that matchless strathspey, the Reel of Tullochgorum!

From Recreations of Christopher North, Volume 2 by John Wilson

“Take down your fiddle, Findlayson, and play a rattling strathspey or reel, that’ll cheer me up more wholesomely than any amount of ‘wee drappies.’”

From From Squire to Squatter A Tale of the Old Land and the New by Gordon Stables

He was self-taught, and truly the sweetness and precision with which he played every note and trill of the rapid reel and strathspey might have made Neil Gow himself envious.

From Hudson Bay by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne

And when the Scotchmen had put on their bonnets again and were seated the Piper tuned up once more and swept around the tables playing a fine strathspey.

From The End of the Rainbow by Mary Esther Miller MacGregor