Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
👞 To dance with taps 👞 A rhythmic dance
to tap dance

to tap dance

6 3.1
To move your feet to make tapping sounds while wearing shoes with metal plates
  • verb
  • /tæp dæns/
translation icon : claquear
  • And, you know, I had to learn how to tap dance for this role.
  • know how to tap dance
  • began to tap dance

And, you know, I had to learn how to tap dance for this role.

Autoplay Next

Examples

  • In one, Anastasia on Her Own, a mother and daughter are laughing and tap-dancing together up a flight of stairs.

    Academic text (2009)

  • So I went into this audition and got the part didn't didn't know how to tap dance, but I I told them, if you cast me, I will learn.

    Dr. Mayim Bialik

  • But I can sing and I can dance and I can tap dance and I can make faces like this.

  • I'd like to do a lot of activities, like to sing, dance, I tap dance, I act.

  • Amber tap dances at the side of the road as traffic passes.

    Fiction book (1999)

  • Together they tap-danced down the hall and up the stairs.

    Academic text (2009)

  • He sings, and I tap-dance!

    Mad Max (1979)

  • Yes, Barbara Cross actually tap-danced on the Ted Mack Amateur Hour, remember?

    Fiction book (1990)

  • In her first professional gig, Ann-Margaret tap-danced with God—well, George Burns, anyway—in Las Vegas.

    Blog text (5)

  • The children were excited to tap dance during the talent show rehearsal.

Synonyms

to dance
vsto tap dance
∞ 1.0

To move your body in time to music

is a specific style making rhythmic foot taps with metal plates
to tapdance
vsto tap dance
3.4

To move the feet to make a rhythm with small metal plates on special shoes

is the same meaning but written as two words

How Energetic

to tap dance
6 3.1
clog
4 8.2
to waltz
44 3.2

Surface Forms

tap dance infinitive
tap danced past
tap danced past participle
tap dancing present participle
tap dances third person singular

Morphology

tap + dance

The meaning 'to perform a style of dance characterized by rhythmic tapping sounds' is directly and compositionally derived from 'tap' (producing rhythmic sounds with the feet) + 'dance' (moving rhythmically). This straightforward combination follows common English compound/verb+verb patterns and would be readily inferable by a B1 learner who knows both constituent words.

Etymology

Tap dance as a verb comes from the same image: you move your feet so the taps on your shoes hit the floor and make a regular sound, so it means 'to do the dance that makes tapping sounds'.