sword dance

noun

1

: a dance performed by men in a circle holding a sword in the right hand and grasping the tip of a neighbor's sword in the left hand

2

: a dance performed over or around swords

sword dancer noun

Example Sentences

Recent Examples on the Web

That trip was highlighted by a mystifying photo op of the leaders gathered around a glowing orb and Trump briefly joining a ceremonial sword dance. —Aamer Madhani, Chicago Tribune, 15 July 2022

That trip was highlighted by a mystifying photo op of the leaders gathered around a glowing orb and Trump briefly joining a ceremonial sword dance. —Ellen Knickmeyer, Chris Megerian, Aamer Madhani, Anchorage Daily News, 15 July 2022

That visit was highlighted by the leaders gathered around a glowing orb and Trump briefly joining a ceremonial sword dance. —Aamer Madhani, BostonGlobe.com, 15 July 2022

Highland dance competitions include the Highland Fling, Scottish Reel, Ghillie Callum solo sword dance, and Sailor’s Hornpipe, along with the Scottish Lilt and Flora MacDonald’s Fancy, one of the Scottish National dances. —Linda Mcintosh, San Diego Union-Tribune, 14 June 2022

As part of the celebration, men and boys were already updating a traditional sword dance with new break-dance moves. —New York Times, 24 Apr. 2022

Meanwhile, Hitch did a kind of verbal sword dance around me. —Margaret Atwood, The Atlantic, 1 Apr. 2022

The matachin was an all-male sword dance that became popular in sixteenth-century Europe; Hay pictured its practitioners as ambiguous shamans, comparable to two-spirit beings in Native American tradition. —Alex Ross, The New Yorker, 25 June 2021

The band was credited with galvanizing a glam-rock boom, with acts seeking to imitate Mr. Van Halen’s quicksilver guitar solos and Roth’s exuberant stage antics, which included a samurai-sword dance and a split-kicking leap from the drum riser. —Washington Post, 6 Oct. 2020

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Word History

First Known Use

1604, in the meaning defined at sense 1