tap dance

noun

1

: a step dance tapped out audibly by means of shoes with hard soles or soles and heels to which taps have been added

2

: something suggesting a tap dance

especially : an action or discourse intended to rationalize or distract

does a clever tap dance to explain

—Campbell Geeslin

tap-dance

ˈtap-ˌdan(t)s 

intransitive verb

tap dancer noun

tap dancing noun

Example Sentences

Recent Examples on the Web

Ferrell spoke to The Times in November about learning to tap dance for that scene. —Los Angeles Times, 22 Dec. 2022

The 27th in-person festival — the first one held since before the pandemic — will feature dance companies from all 12 of the county’s public high schools performing a variety of genres, from modern and ballet to hip hop and tap dance. —Ethan Ehrenhaft, Baltimore Sun, 21 Jan. 2023

As the curtain was rising, the cast was already breaking into a wild, long, frenetic and fantastic tap dance. —Christopher Arnott, Hartford Courant, 25 Dec. 2022

No, Kidman doesn’t have much in the way of experience dealing with a live television audience or in performing the kind of tap dance necessary to keep a four-hour ceremony hopping. —Joe Reid, Vulture, 13 Jan. 2022

This tap dance-heavy musical comedy, which debuted in 1935 and had a Tony-winning 1987 revival, is a love story and comedy set aboard an ocean liner crossing the Atlantic. —Pam Kragen, San Diego Union-Tribune, 22 Nov. 2022

Already, many banks that boast of their ESG credentials are engaged in an awkward tap dance, playing up their oil and gas holdings in correspondence with red-state officials. —Erika Fry, Fortune, 28 Sep. 2022

How many people in this world can say Bill Robinson taught them how to tap dance? —Susan Orlean, The New Yorker, 28 Sep. 2022

The Academy Museum hosted an event Wednesday night in celebration of the exhibit’s opening, with a special tap dance performance by the Nicholas Brothers’ granddaughters, Cathie and Nicole (aka the Nicholas Sisters). —Michaela Zee, Variety, 18 Aug. 2022

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Word History

First Known Use

1928, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Kids Definition

tap dance

noun

: a dance tapped out loudly by means of shoes to which taps have been added

tap-dance verb

tap dancer noun

tap dancing noun