trip the light fantastic
trip the light fantastic verb: to dance or to move rhythmically to musical accompaniment, especially in a graceful or nimble manner.
Verb
trip the light fantastic (third-person singular simple present trips the light fantastic, present participle tripping the light fantastic, simple past and past participle tripped the light fantastic)
- To dance or to move rhythmically to musical accompaniment, especially in a graceful or nimble manner.
- On board the steamer, which accompanied the yachts all through the race, the majority passed their time pleasantly in paying homage to Terpsichore; though there was not much room for dancing, a goodly array continued to trip the light fantastic.1856 December 1, The Empire, Sydney, page 5, column 2
- "Swing Time:" Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers trip the light fantastic in this yarn about a dancer with a yen for gambling.1978 May 31, "Movies", in the St. Petersburg Independent, page 11-B
Forms of trip the light fantastic
| third-person singular present | trips the light fantastic |
|---|---|
| present participle | tripping the light fantastic |
| past participle | tripped the light fantastic |
| past | tripped the light fantastic |
| alternative form | trip the light fantastic toe |
Origin of trip the light fantastic
Shortening of trip the light fantastic toe.
Questions about trip the light fantastic
- What does trip the light fantastic mean?
- Trip the light fantastic means to dance or to move rhythmically to musical accompaniment, especially in a graceful or nimble manner.
- What part of speech is trip the light fantastic?
- Trip the light fantastic is a verb.
- What is the past tense of trip the light fantastic?
- The past tense of trip the light fantastic is tripped the light fantastic.
Words near trip the light fantastic in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: trip the 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:
Cite this entry: “trip the light fantastic.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/trip_the_light_fantastic. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
