Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A dance or a dancing-party of an easy and unceremonious character, the carpet not being lifted for the occasion, as for a ball.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Always cheerfully "full of company," as they said, it was the sort of house where a carpet-dance could be arranged in half an hour; a house with a sideboard like the widow's cruse; the young men always found more.

    The Two Vanrevels Booth Tarkington 1907

  • Before nightfall -- before the evening which was to have been enlivened by a dinner-party and a carpet-dance, and while bride and bridegroom should have been speeding southwards to that noble Kentish mansion which his uncle had lent George Fairfax -- before the rooks flew homeward across the woods beyond

    The Lovels of Arden 1875

  • Of course, in the evening, when some young people were present, there was frequently a carpet-dance improvised; and then sometimes Nan was dragged in to make up a set at some square dance.

    The Beautiful Wretch; The Pupil of Aurelius; and The Four Macnicols William Black 1869

  • On these occasions it was of course a carpet-dance.

    Gryll Grange Thomas Love Peacock 1825

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