contra dance

contra dance

See also: contradance

English

Etymology

French contredanse

Noun

contra dance (plural contra dances)

1. (dance) A type of folk dance style in which couples dance in two facing lines of indefinite length.
   • 1836, [Catherine Gore], chapter VIII, in Mrs. Armytage; or, Female Domination. […] In Three Volumes, volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], OCLC 230659020, page 134:

     [T]he Duchess, and the dandies, and the member's wife and all the rest of their tribulations, were happily hidden from the view by the towering bouquets of the gold plateau vases at the head of the room. [...] A contra-dance after supper was felt to be a national duty; but behind those fatal vases a plot had already been concocted by the recondites for rewarding their previous self-denial, not by a quadrille, but a galoppe.

Verb

contra dance (third-person singular simple present contra dances, present participle contra dancing, simple past and past participle contra danced)

1. To participate in a contra dance.