Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun In India, a kind of ballet-dance performed by professional dancers called by Europeans nautch-girls; any kind of stage-entertainment, especially one which includes dancing.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun India An entertainment consisting chiefly of dancing by professional dancing (or Nautch) girls.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A
dance in South Asia, performed by professional dancing girls.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun an intricate traditional dance in India performed by professional dancing girls
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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A vague notion prevails that a nautch is a very naughty and improper exhibition.
Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science Volume 12, No. 31, October, 1873 Various
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The musically inclined colonizers, even during the time of Warren Hastings used to refer to dancers as 'nautch' girls (naach for dance in hindi) and even used to host 'nautch' parties in their residence; some of them even attempted to play their raga based music on harpsichords.
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Whether represented by an oil painting of heroic British women or images of sultry nautch girls, Lucknow in this last gallery is reduced to a series of competing icons.
Where East Met West To Wondrous Effect Lee Lawrence 2011
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Ruler Nasir al-Din Haidar appears in Kettle's portrait wearing a European-style crown, while a 1786-88 portrait of Antoine-Louis Henri Polier, a French officer and tireless art collector, shows a mustachioed European in caftan and turban sitting on cushions watching a nautch girl caught middance, one arm raised, an ankle encircled in bells.
Where East Met West To Wondrous Effect Lee Lawrence 2011
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But Polly's was like the mad and lawless ceremonial of some heathen temple where incense arose and nautch girls writhed.
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If he had been the true commander here, he would have put a stop to all of these unseemly festivities, ordered a halt for prayer five times a day, had the camp swept free of the women of ill repute and the nautch girls.
Shadow Princess Indu Sundaresan 2010
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I let out an astonishing noise, and was trying to steady myself for a plunge, but she checked me with a lifted hand, slid one foot forward, crooked her arms like a nautch-dancer, and came gliding slowly towards me, swaying that splendid golden nakedness in time to the throbbing of the music beneath our feet.
Fiancée 2010
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I came out rotten with fleas, stinking of nautch-oil and cheap perfume and cooking ghee, with my ears full of beggars 'whines and hawkers' jabbering and the clang of the booths - but that was all.
Fiancée 2010
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If he had been the true commander here, he would have put a stop to all of these unseemly festivities, ordered a halt for prayer five times a day, had the camp swept free of the women of ill repute and the nautch girls.
Shadow Princess Indu Sundaresan 2010
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If he had been the true commander here, he would have put a stop to all of these unseemly festivities, ordered a halt for prayer five times a day, had the camp swept free of the women of ill repute and the nautch girls.
Shadow Princess Indu Sundaresan 2010
mollusque commented on the word nautch
His eyebrows, however, were as seductively arched as a nautch girl's, his eyelashes so thick he might have been wearing mascara.
--Jeffrey Eugenides, 2002, Middlesex, p. 89
August 16, 2008
knitandpurl commented on the word nautch
"The world moves so much—shimmers and shakes like a nautch dancer, more than you can ever know when you're in it rather than looking at it."
--Paris to the Moon by Adam Gopnik, p 255
September 29, 2008