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Dance

1. To move with measured steps, or to a musical accompaniment; to go through, either alone or in company with others, with a regulated succession of movements, (commonly) to the sound of music; to trip or leap rhytmically. Jack shall pipe and gill shall dance. (Wiher) Good shepherd, what fair swain is this Which dances with your dauther? (Shak)

2. To move nimbly or merrily; to express pleasure by motion; to caper; to frisk; to skip about. Then, 'tis time to dance off. (Thackeray) More dances my rapt heart Than when i first my wedded mistress saw. (Shak) Shadows in the glassy waters dance. (Byron) Where rivulets dance their wayward round. (Wordsworth) to dance on a rope, or to dance on nothing, to be hanged.

Origin: f. Danser, fr. OHG. Dansn to draw; akin to dinsan to draw, goth. Apinsan, and prob. From the same root (meaning to stretch) as E. Thin. See thin.