Word.ws English Dictionary

kick-step

kick-step noun: a dance move in which the dancer first kicks a foot in the air in front of the opposite leg (often while bending the knee slightly on that leg) and then puts the foot down shifting balance on to it.

Noun

kick-step (plural kick-steps)

  1. A dance move in which the dancer first kicks a foot in the air in front of the opposite leg (often while bending the knee slightly on that leg) and then puts the foot down shifting balance on to it.
  2. A hiking technique for managing loose soil where the hiker first aggressively kicks the ground, digging a foothold, before shifting weight onto the foot.
    • The kick-step she'd used to make steps out of the play area, was necessary to keep from sliding while walking across a slope.2014, Marlene Collins, Quiet Savage, →ISBN, page 235

Verb

kick-step (third-person singular simple present kick-steps, present participle kick-stepping, simple past and past participle kick-stepped)

  1. To dance using a kick-step.
    • Arms draped on shoulders, kick-stepping in circles, they swing bottles of wine. Purpled thumbs cork the bottles. The wine leaps and jumps behind green glass.2014, Paul Salopek, Blessed. Cursed. Claimed., National Geographic (December 2014)https://web.archive.org/web/20150212214621/http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2014/12/pilgrim-roads/salopek-text
  2. To hike using a kick-step.

Forms of kick-step

Noun
pluralkick-steps
Verb
third-person singular presentkick-steps
present participlekick-stepping
past participlekick-stepped
pastkick-stepped

Origin of kick-step

From kick + step.

Questions about kick-step

What does kick-step mean?
Kick-step means a dance move in which the dancer first kicks a foot in the air in front of the opposite leg (often while bending the knee slightly on that leg) and then puts the foot down shifting balance on to it.
What part of speech is kick-step?
Kick-step can be a noun or a verb.
What is the plural of kick-step?
The plural of kick-step is kick-steps.

Words near kick-step in the dictionary

  1. kick-started
  2. kick-starter
  3. kick-starters
  4. kick-starting
  5. kick-starts
  6. kick-step
  7. kick-stepped
  8. kick-stepping
  9. kick-steps
  10. kick-the-can
  11. kick-to-kick

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: kick-step (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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Cite this entry: “kick-step.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/kick-step. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.