Word.ws English Dictionary

dance with the one that brought you

UK/ˈdɑːns wɪð ðə wʌn ðət ˈbɹɔːt juː//ˈdæns wɪð ðə wʌn ðət ˈbɹɔt ju/

dance with the one that brought you proverb: be considerate and loyal to the person who has been attentive, helpful, or supportive to you.

Proverb

dance with the one that brought you

  1. (Canada, US, informal) Be considerate and loyal to the person who has been attentive, helpful, or supportive to you.
    • There is an expression in sports about ‘dancing with the one that brought you’; it means sticking with players and strategies that have worked.[1984 February 3–4, Richard C. Richardson Jr., Improving Opportunities for Earning the Baccalaureate Degree for Urban Students, [Washington, D.C.]: Education Resources Information Center, National...
    • We support this free and open exchange of ideas. That's what got us here and as Bum Phillips, the ex-coach of the Houston Oilers used to say, you ought to dance with the one that brought you.1986 January 30 (date delivered), Donald I. Carter, “Session I: Opening Remarks and Principal Speakers”, in Proceedings of the Joint Government–Industry Symposium on R&D Planning Information...

dance with the one that brought you meaning in Vietnamese

dance with the one that brought you in Vietnamese

be considerate and loyal to the person who has been attentive, helpful, or supportive to you
ăn quả nhớ kẻ trồng cây, uống nước nhớ nguồn

Examples of dance with the one that brought you in a sentence

  • Sometimes you have to dance with the one that brought you.2000 October 18, Thomas Boswell, “Unlike the boss, Torre recognizes the right stuff”, in The Washington Post, Washington, D.C.: The...
  • "Dance with the one that brought you," the saying goes, but when you are a Senate Democrat stuck with the wrong prom date, there's only one thing to do: hide in the bathroom.2014 February 17, John E[dward] Sununu, “Keeping Obama at arm’s length”, in The Boston Globe, Boston, Mass.: The Globe Newspaper Co....
  • I mention this Canadian Conservative Prime Minister because he coined the political adage ‘you dance with the one that brought you’.2016 April 30, James Allan, “Leaving the dance with the one who brought you”, in The Spectator, London: Old Queen Street Ventures, archived...

Synonyms of dance with the one that brought you

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Origin of dance with the one that brought you

Referring to the polite practice of someone dancing with the person who brought them to a dance, instead of ignoring them and dancing with other people.

Questions about dance with the one that brought you

What does dance with the one that brought you mean?
Dance with the one that brought you means be considerate and loyal to the person who has been attentive, helpful, or supportive to you.
What is dance with the one that brought you in Vietnamese?
Dance with the one that brought you in Vietnamese is ăn quả nhớ kẻ trồng cây, uống nước nhớ nguồn. See Dance with the one that brought you meaning in Vietnamese.
How do you use dance with the one that brought you in a sentence?
Sometimes you have to dance with the one that brought you.
What part of speech is dance with the one that brought you?
Dance with the one that brought you is a proverb.
How do you pronounce dance with the one that brought you?
Dance with the one that brought you is pronounced /ˈdɑːns wɪð ðə wʌn ðət ˈbɹɔːt juː/ (UK).

Words near dance with the one that brought you in the dictionary

  1. dance to a new tune
  2. dance to someone's tune
  3. dance upon nothing
  4. dance with the devil
  5. dance with the one that brought ya
  6. dance with the one that brought you
  7. dance with the one that brung ya
  8. dance with the one that brung you
  9. dance with the one what brought ya
  10. dance with the one what brought you
  11. dance with the one what brung ya

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: dance with the one that brought you (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.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-dance with the one that brought you.wav.

Cite this entry: “dance with the one that brought you.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/dance_with_the_one_that_brought_you. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.