Adjacent Words

Minuet definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

MIN'UET,n.
1. A slow graceful dance, consisting of a coupee, a high step and a balance.
2. A tune or air to regulate the movements in the dance so called; a movement of three crotchets or three quavers in a bar.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: a stately court dance in the 17th century
2: a stately piece of music composed for dancing the minuet; often incorporated into a sonata or suite

Merriam Webster's

noun Etymology: French menuet, from obsolete French, tiny, from Old French, from menu small, from Latin minutus Date: 1672 1. a slow graceful dance in 3/4 time characterized by forward balancing, bowing, and toe pointing 2. music for or in the rhythm of a minuet

Britannica Concise

Dignified couple dance derived from a French folk dance, dominant in European court ballrooms in the 17th-18th cent. Using small, slow steps to music in 3/4 time, dancers often performed choreographed figures combined with stylized bows and curtsies. The most popular dance of the 18th-cent. aristocracy, it fell from favor after the French Revolution in 1789. It was of great importance in art music; commonly incorporated into the suite c.1650-1775, it was the only dance form retained in the symphony, sonata, string quartet, and other multimovement art-music genres up to c.1800.

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. & v. --n. 1 a slow stately dance for two in triple time. 2 Mus. the music for this, or music in the same rhythm and style, often as a movement in a suite, sonata, or symphony. --v.intr. (minueted, minueting) dance a minuet. Etymology: F menuet, orig. adj. = fine, delicate, dimin. of menu: see MENU

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Minuet Min"u*et, n. [F., fr. menu small, L. minutus small. So called on account of the short steps of the dance. See 4th Minute.] 1. A slow graceful dance consisting of a coupee, a high step, and a balance. 2. (Mus.) A tune or air to regulate the movements of the dance so called; a movement in suites, sonatas, symphonies, etc., having the dance form, and commonly in 3-4, sometimes 3-8, measure.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(minuets) 1. In the music of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, a minuet is a piece of music with three beats in a bar which is played at moderate speed. N-COUNT 2. A minuet is a fairly slow and formal dance which was popular in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. N-COUNT