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Glite Dictionary
🤘 To dance wildly 🤘 A rough dance
slam dance

slam dance

8.8
A style of dancing where people bump into each other on purpose, usually at punk shows
  • noun
  • /slæm dæns/
  • Jargon
translation icon : slam dance
  • At the festival, people did a slam dance while enjoying the loud and fast beats.

I I met him early on in the in the days of slam dance because I think I attended the second slam dance and been going ever since.

Examples

  • I I met him early on in the in the days of slam dance because I think I attended the second slam dance and been going ever since.

    Film Courage

  • Shit. INT. Cameron's house - the front door cut to: Dick Nixon plays a punk version of White Christmas as skins slam dance.

    Fiction book (1998)

  • During the concert, the crowd began to slam dance to the aggressive punk rock music.

  • As the band played, fans rushed into the pit to slam dance with each other energetically.

Synonyms

slam dancing
vsslam dance
  • Informal
8.4

A style of dancing where people push and bump into each other to loud music

is the noun form naming the same activity rather than the -ing form

Antonyms

to stand still
75 1.0

Stay upright in one place without moving

How Aggressive

to mosh
  • Slang
1 9.0
slam dance
  • Jargon
8.8
clubbing
  • Informal
5 3.4

Surface Forms

slam dance singular
slam dances plural

Morphology

slam + dance

The sense 'to dance in a violent/energetic way, often colliding with others' is directly inferable from combining 'slam' (to strike or push forcefully) with 'dance' (move rhythmically). Although learners might miss the subcultural association with punk/hardcore and mosh pits, the core action is compositionally transparent and predictable from the constituents.

Etymology

The noun slam dance probably comes from the simple image of people slam, meaning they hit or bump into each other, while they dance at punk shows. That's why it means 'a rough, energetic style of dancing where people knock into one another'.