light fantastic

light fantastic noun: a dance or the act of dancing.

Noun

light fantastic (plural light fantastics)

(dated) A dance or the act of dancing.
- An officer told the Water Police Magistrate to-day how some few nights ago he had seen Williams giving an exhibition more daring than conventional, and keeping time to the dancing of her "light fantastic" with language that "struck him all of a heap."1905 May 12, The Evening News, Sydney, page 4, column 5
- The Upper Four Hundred sternly setting its face against anything pertaining to the frivolous; and insisting that while there is serious work to be done there must be no light fantastic, but a truce to the pomp and shows of Vanity Fair.1914 December 1, The Clarence and Richmond Examiner, Grafton, page 3, column 2

light fantastic (not comparable)

(obsolete) Of or relating to nimble or elegant dancing; of dancing, comprising agile footwork.
- He suddenly started off into a variety of light fantastic flights and jiggetty jiggetty jumps.1911, ‘Steel Rudd’, The Book of Dan, Brisbane: University of Queensland Press, published 1970, page 87
- Unseen she skipped into the Equity Court yesterday, a light fantastic figure, who brightened the dry legal proceedings by standing on her head.1934 November 13, The Daily Telegraph, Sydney, page 7, column 7

plural	light fantastics

Shortening of light fantastic toe.

What does light fantastic mean?: Light fantastic means a dance or the act of dancing.
What part of speech is light fantastic?: Light fantastic can be a noun or an adjective.
What is the plural of light fantastic?: The plural of light fantastic is light fantastics.

Adapted from Wiktionary: light fantastic (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: 2026-09-02

Cite this entry: “light fantastic.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/light_fantastic. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.