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dancing partner

dancing partner

3 2.5
A person you dance with as a pair
  • noun
translation icon : pareja de baile
  • BBC's Strictly Come Dancing kept me warm at the weekend, or rather Kimberley Walsh of Girls Aloud and her dancing partner Pasha Kovalev put a smile on my face.

If you get caught kissing your dance partner, this is what will happen.

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Examples

  • Sign read "Pleasureland. Dancing partners wanted."

  • Which reminds me, if you're a song-and-dance man... ...and you've spent some time in pictures... ...inevitably, some interviewer will ask: "Who was your favorite dancing partner?

  • My two favorite dancing partners.

  • I have another dancing partner for you.

  • Those who had brought dancing partners were having a fine time.

    Fiction book (1997)
  • Our primary dancing partner is Dr. Page Talbott, chief curator.

    Academic text (2004)
  • They're perfectly respectable dining and dancing partners.

  • Johanna rejoined Sirkka, who was left alone, as all of the young waitresses had found dancing partners with whom they stayed chatting.

    Fiction book (1992)
  • At the dance studio, I asked Maria to be my dancing partner for the class.

  • During the competition, she felt nervous as she waited for her dancing partner to arrive.

How Skilled

dancing partner
3 2.5

Surface Forms

Morphology

dancing + partner

The meaning 'a person with whom one dances as a pair' is directly and compositionally derived from 'dancing' (engaging in dance) + 'partner' (a person who partners with another). This is a straightforward noun + noun/adjective+noun combination following common cross-linguistic patterns, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents will readily infer the MWE meaning.

Etymology

Dancing partner comes from the clear picture of two people on a dance floor: one person is dancing and the other is the partner who moves with them. So, it means 'a person with whom one dances'.