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Glite Dictionary
to dance the Lindy

to dance the Lindy

8.3
To do a lively swing dance with a partner called the Lindy Hop
  • phrasal verb
  • /dæns ðə ˈlɪndi/
translation icon : bailar el Lindy
  • At the party, everyone started to dance the Lindy as the jazz band played lively music.

Examples

  • She taught her friends how to dance the Lindy during their dance class last week.

  • They practiced every Saturday to dance the Lindy perfectly for the competition.

  • I was asked the medical histories of women I've never met, women who came of age in mill towns and wore cloches and danced the Lindy.

    Fiction book (2001)

Synonyms

to dance
vsto dance the Lindy
579 1.0

To move quickly and lightly from side to side or up and down

is a specific 1920s and 1930s partnered swing style rather than general lively movement

Antonyms

to stand still
75 1.0

Stay upright in one place without moving

to sit still
66 1.0

Stay seated without moving

How Energetic

to jive
7 7.6
to dance the Lindy
8.3
to waltz
44 3.2
to foxtrot
1 7.4

Surface Forms

dance the Lindy infinitive
danced the Lindy past
danced the Lindy past participle
dancing the Lindy present participle
dances the Lindy third person singular

Morphology

dance + the + lindy

The meaning 'to perform the Lindy Hop' is directly and compositionally derived from 'dance' (move rhythmically) + the definite article + 'Lindy' (the name of a specific dance). The pattern 'dance the + [dance name]' is a regular, cross-linguistic construction, so a B1 learner who knows the constituent words would understand this phrase.

Etymology

Dance the Lindy comes from a lively American swing dance called the Lindy Hop, which began in New York in the 1920s and 1930s. One popular story says the name came after pilot Charles Lindbergh's ocean 'hop', and because dancers jumped and spun like a small 'flight', to dance the Lindy now means to dance that joyful, fast style.