dance-card

See also: dancecard and dance card

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈdɑːnskɑːd/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈdænsˌkɑɹd/

Noun

dance-card (plural dance-cards)

1. Alternative form of dance card
   • 1893, Sara Jeannette Duncan, chapter XII, in The Simple Adventures of a Memsahib, London: Chatto & Windus, […], →OCLC, page 142:

     [A]t the Belvedere dance on Friday he came and implored me to tell him what colour Lady Blebbins was wearing. It was hyacinth and daffodil faille—the simplest thing, but he was awfully at a loss, poor fellow! And afterwards I saw him put it down on the back of his dance-card.

   • 1895, Jesse Lynch Williams, “When Girls Come to Princeton”, in Princeton Stories, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC, pages 200–201:

     But all that you are sure of is that your escort offers you his arm with a smile and a stiff bow, that you walk nervously up the winding stairs, step into a dazzle of light, where members of the dance committee are running hither and thither with dance-cards and girls, and where patronesses are smiling, bowing, looking stately, holding their fans, and doing whatever patronesses usually do.