DANCE OF DEATH • FREE-TRANSLATOR.COM • Definition of Dance of death

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/dæns əv dɛθ/ Listen

noun

Dance n.

The leaping, tripping, or measured stepping of one who dances; an amusement, in which the movements of the persons are regulated by art, in figures and in accord with music.

(Mus.) A tune by which dancing is regulated, as the minuet, the waltz, the cotillon, etc. Note: The word dance was used ironically, by the older writers, of many proceedings besides dancing. "Of remedies of love she knew parchance For of that art she couth the olde dance."

Dance of Death (Art), an allegorical representation of the power of death over all, the old, the young, the high, and the low, being led by a dancing skeleton.

Morris dance. See Morris.

To lead one a dance, to cause one to go through a series of movements or experiences as if guided by a partner in a dance not understood.

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Etymology of 'Dance of death'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Dance of death" Quotes from Famous Books

... our merry-making we find with Ibsen that "there is a corpse on board." The mask is falling only to show the Death's head there concealed. Aristocracy, Democracy, Anarchy, Empire, the history of politics, is the eternal round of the Dance of Death. ...

— The Philosophy of Despair • David Starr Jordan

... their efforts, on the wind that swept in gusts out of the west. On the lawn at Jordan's Journey the fallen leaves were dancing madly like a carnival in rough carousal. Watching them it was easy to imagine that they found some frenzied joy in this dance of death—the end to which they had moved from the young green of the bud through the opulent abundance of the summer. The air was alive with their sighing. They rustled softly under foot as Abel walked up the drive, and then, whipped by a strong gust, fled in ...

— The Miller Of Old Church • Ellen Glasgow

... prayer book (first printed in 1565) may suppose that the Queen thought the addition of her own portrait would be no mean decoration to the work. Every page is adorned with borders, engraved on wood, of the most spirited execution: representing, amongst other subjects, "The Dance of Death." My copy is the reprint of 1608—in high preservation. I have no doubt that there was a presentation copy printed UPON VELLUM; but in what cabinet does ...

— Bibliomania; or Book-Madness - A Bibliographical Romance • Thomas Frognall Dibdin

... charms into the fire and chanted loathsome spells and terrible curses on Khama. As a boy he had been taught that these witch-doctors had the power to slay or to smite with foul diseases. He would have been more than human if he had not felt a shiver of nameless dread at this lurid and horrible dance of death. ...

— The Book of Missionary Heroes • Basil Mathews

... wronged you first, and began First the dance of death that you dance so well? Soul for soul: and I think the soul of a man Shall answer for ...

— Silhouettes • Arthur Symons