trip the light fantastic
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trip
(trĭp)n.
1. A going from one place to another; a journey.
2. A stumble or fall.
3. A maneuver causing someone to stumble or fall.
4. A mistake.
5. Slang
a. A hallucinatory experience induced by a psychedelic drug: an acid trip.
b. An intense, stimulating, or exciting experience: a power trip.
6. Slang
a. A usually temporary but absorbing interest or preoccupation: He's on another health food trip.
b. A certain way of life or situation: "deny that his reclusiveness is some sort of deliberate star trip" (Patricia Bosworth).
7. A light or nimble tread.
8.
a. A device, such as a pawl, for triggering a mechanism.
b. The action of such a device.
v. tripped, trip·ping, trips
v.intr.
1. To stumble.
2. To move nimbly with light rapid steps; skip.
3. To be released, as a tooth on an escapement wheel in a watch.
4. To make a trip.
5. To make a mistake: tripped up on the last question.
6. Slang To have a drug-induced hallucination.
v.tr.
Idiom: 1. To cause to stumble or fall.
2. To trap or catch in an error or inconsistency.
3. To release (a catch, trigger, or switch), thereby setting something in operation.
4. Nautical
a. To raise (an anchor) from the bottom.
b. To tip or turn (a yardarm) into a position for lowering.
c. To lift (an upper mast) in order to remove the fid before lowering.
trip the light fantastic
To dance.
[Middle English, act of tripping, from trippen, to trip, from Old French tripper, to stamp the foot, of Germanic origin.]
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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| Verb | 1. |  trip the light fantastic - move in a pattern; usually to musical accompaniment; do or perform a dance; "My husband and I like to dance at home to the radio"dancing, terpsichore, dance, saltation - taking a series of rhythmical steps (and movements) in time to music jive - dance to jive music; dance the jive hoof - dance in a professional capacity clog - dance a clog dance tap dance - perform a tap dance belly dance - perform a belly dance heel - perform with the heels; "heel that dance" shimmy - dance a shimmy move - move so as to change position, perform a nontranslational motion; "He moved his hand slightly to the right" dance - move in a graceful and rhythmical way; "The young girl danced into the room" bump - dance erotically or dance with the pelvis thrust forward; "bump and grind" twist - do the twist waltz, waltz around - dance a waltz tapdance, tap - dance and make rhythmic clicking sounds by means of metal plates nailed to the sole of the dance shoes; "Glover tapdances better than anybody" tango - dance a tango foxtrot - dance the foxtrot cakewalk - perform the cakewalk dance conga - dance the conga samba - dance the samba two-step - dance the two-step Charleston - dance the Charleston boogie - dance to boogie music cha-cha - dance the cha-cha disco - dance to disco music mambo - dance a mambo polka - dance a polka one-step - dance the one-step jig - dance a quick dance with leaping and kicking motions jitterbug - do the jitterbug folk dance - perform a folk-dance square dance - dance in formation quickstep - perform a quickstep kick - kick a leg up skank - dance the skank grind - dance by rotating the pelvis in an erotically suggestive way, often while in contact with one's partner such that the dancers' legs are interlaced |
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