Word.ws English Dictionary

dance of the seven veils

dance of the seven veils noun: a striptease performance.

Noun (1)

dance of the seven veils (plural dances of the seven veils)

  1. (idiomatic) A striptease performance.
    • And as for the next room, which was for the dances of the ‘Seven Veils’, I could not wait to see the mind-blowing performance! I joined the men in the queue and jostled my way into the room, seating myself on one of the rickety chairs.2010, Ron S. King, The Dreams of Neptune, →ISBN, page 143
    • If King had any wit he would have included a scene where a burka-clad Samantha performs the dance of the seven veils for one of her many smitten studs.2010 May 30, Peter Rainer, “Sex and the City 2: movie review”, in Christian Science Monitor, US, retrieved 27 Sep 2015
    Synonyms:
    fan dance
  2. (broadly, idiomatic) The incremental disclosure of tantalizing bits of information.
    • "Testing the waters" is a veil for what candidates do in the years when it's too unseemly to be seen actually running for president. . . . But this veil is dropped when candidate and handlers believe the coyness has begun to cloy. And then the candidate's dance of the seven veils has begun.2006 December 5, Ron Elving, “Declaring for President is a Dance of Seven Veils”, in National Public Radio, US, retrieved 27 Sep 2015
    • Mr. Putin’s succession and (likely) restoration is a leisurely dance of the seven veils in which one veil is dropped only for another to be donned.2009 January 11, Simon Sebag Montefiore, “In Russia, Power Has No Heirs”, in New York Times, retrieved 27 Sep 2015
    Synonyms:
    fan dance

Noun (2) capitalized: Dance of the Seven Veils

Dance of the Seven Veils (plural Dances of the Seven Veils)

  1. (alternative) Alternative form of dance of the seven veils.

Synonyms of dance of the seven veils

Forms of dance of the seven veils

pluraldances of the seven veils
alternative formDance of the Seven Veils
alternative formveil dance
alternative formseven-veil dance
pluralDances of the Seven Veils

Origin of dance of the seven veils

Based on the Biblical description (Mark 6:22) of a salacious dance performed (by Salome, according to tradition) in the court of King Herod. The precise term "dance of the seven veils" was reportedly first used in the stage directions of Oscar Wilde's play Salome (1891).

Questions about dance of the seven veils

What does dance of the seven veils mean?
Dance of the seven veils means a striptease performance.
What part of speech is dance of the seven veils?
Dance of the seven veils is a noun.
What is the plural of dance of the seven veils?
The plural of dance of the seven veils is dances of the seven veils.

Words near dance of the seven veils in the dictionary

  1. dance mats
  2. dance move
  3. dance moves
  4. dance music
  5. dance of death
  6. dance of the seven veils
  7. dance on a rope
  8. dance on nothing
  9. dance on someone's grave
  10. dance out
  11. dance pad

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: dance of the seven veils (page history and authors); Dance of the Seven Veils (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:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-dance of the seven veils.ogg.

Cite this entry: “dance of the seven veils.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/dance_of_the_seven_veils. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.