contra dance
contra dance noun: a type of folk dance style in which couples dance in two facing lines of indefinite length.
Noun
contra dance (plural contra dances)
- A type of folk dance style in which couples dance in two facing lines of indefinite length.
- [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...1836, [Catherine Gore], chapter VIII, in Mrs. Armytage; or, Female Domination. […] In Three Volumes, volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 134
Verb
contra dance (third-person singular simple present contra dances, present participle contra dancing, simple past and past participle contra danced)
- To participate in a contra dance.
Forms of contra dance
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | contra dances |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | contra dances |
| present participle | contra dancing |
| past participle | contra danced |
| past | contra danced |
Origin of contra dance
Borrowed from French contredanse.
Questions about contra dance
- What does contra dance mean?
- Contra dance means a type of folk dance style in which couples dance in two facing lines of indefinite length.
- What part of speech is contra dance?
- Contra dance can be a noun or a verb.
- What is the plural of contra dance?
- The plural of contra dance is contra dances.
Words near contra dance in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: contra dance (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Cite this entry: “contra dance.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/contra_dance. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.