"cakewalk" meaning in All languages combined

See cakewalk on Wiktionary

Noun [English]

IPA: /ˈkeɪk.wɔk/ [US] Audio: en-us-cakewalk.ogg , en-au-cakewalk.ogg Forms: cakewalks [plural]
Etymology: From cake + walk. Originally an African-American form of dance and music that developed after the Civil War, later popularised by minstrel shows. It was danced at social events, with the best dancers often receiving cake as a prize. It derives from dance competitions by plantation slaves in which the style of dance lampooned the ballroom dances of the slaveowners. Slaveowners seem to have found the competitions entertaining and the habit of offering cake may originate from this period. The name is sometimes also applied to the dance's precursor on the plantations. Doing the cakewalk well required virtuosity, and a major esthetic aspect of that virtuosity was the apparent ease with which the dance was performed. This gave rise to the idiom as easy as a cakewalk, which in turn led to the sense of cakewalk as something that is easy. See the linked Wikipedia article for more. Etymology templates: {{com|en|cake|walk}} cake + walk Head templates: {{en-noun}} cakewalk (plural cakewalks)
  1. (historical) A contest in which cake was offered for the best dancers. Tags: historical Categories (topical): Dances
    Sense id: en-cakewalk-en-noun-ZfJ1cP-b Disambiguation of Dances: 34 12 25 2 27 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Entries with translation boxes, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries, Terms with Polish translations, Terms with Portuguese translations, Terms with Spanish translations Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 77 9 4 3 7 Disambiguation of Entries with translation boxes: 63 10 9 5 13 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 65 18 5 3 9 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 82 5 5 3 5 Disambiguation of Terms with Polish translations: 44 22 19 4 12 Disambiguation of Terms with Portuguese translations: 62 11 12 5 10 Disambiguation of Terms with Spanish translations: 72 7 7 3 11
  2. (music) The style of music associated with such a contest. Categories (topical): Music, Musical genres
    Sense id: en-cakewalk-en-noun-YiHmzK8E Disambiguation of Musical genres: 38 55 3 4 0 Topics: entertainment, lifestyle, music
  3. (performing arts) The dance, or strutting style of dance, associated with such a contest.
    Sense id: en-cakewalk-en-noun-sMODaJYR
  4. (idiomatic, informal) Something that is easy or simple, or that does not present a great challenge. Tags: idiomatic, informal Synonyms: easy thing Translations (something easy): betka [feminine] (Polish), pera doce [feminine] (Portuguese), chanfa [feminine] (Spanish), pan comido (Spanish)
    Sense id: en-cakewalk-en-noun-0FZk3dHA Disambiguation of 'something easy': 0 0 0 100

Verb [English]

IPA: /ˈkeɪk.wɔk/ [US] Audio: en-us-cakewalk.ogg , en-au-cakewalk.ogg Forms: cakewalks [present, singular, third-person], cakewalking [participle, present], cakewalked [participle, past], cakewalked [past]
Etymology: From cake + walk. Originally an African-American form of dance and music that developed after the Civil War, later popularised by minstrel shows. It was danced at social events, with the best dancers often receiving cake as a prize. It derives from dance competitions by plantation slaves in which the style of dance lampooned the ballroom dances of the slaveowners. Slaveowners seem to have found the competitions entertaining and the habit of offering cake may originate from this period. The name is sometimes also applied to the dance's precursor on the plantations. Doing the cakewalk well required virtuosity, and a major esthetic aspect of that virtuosity was the apparent ease with which the dance was performed. This gave rise to the idiom as easy as a cakewalk, which in turn led to the sense of cakewalk as something that is easy. See the linked Wikipedia article for more. Etymology templates: {{com|en|cake|walk}} cake + walk Head templates: {{en-verb}} cakewalk (third-person singular simple present cakewalks, present participle cakewalking, simple past and past participle cakewalked)
  1. (intransitive) To perform the cakewalk dance. Tags: intransitive
    Sense id: en-cakewalk-en-verb-SQjOMw3y

Inflected forms

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  "etymology_text": "From cake + walk. Originally an African-American form of dance and music that developed after the Civil War, later popularised by minstrel shows. It was danced at social events, with the best dancers often receiving cake as a prize. It derives from dance competitions by plantation slaves in which the style of dance lampooned the ballroom dances of the slaveowners. Slaveowners seem to have found the competitions entertaining and the habit of offering cake may originate from this period. The name is sometimes also applied to the dance's precursor on the plantations. Doing the cakewalk well required virtuosity, and a major esthetic aspect of that virtuosity was the apparent ease with which the dance was performed. This gave rise to the idiom as easy as a cakewalk, which in turn led to the sense of cakewalk as something that is easy.\nSee the linked Wikipedia article for more.",
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        "(historical) A contest in which cake was offered for the best dancers."
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        "(music) The style of music associated with such a contest."
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        "(performing arts) The dance, or strutting style of dance, associated with such a contest."
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        "(idiomatic, informal) Something that is easy or simple, or that does not present a great challenge."
      ],
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          "_dis1": "0 0 0 100",
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "something easy",
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        }
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        "(intransitive) To perform the cakewalk dance."
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        "A contest in which cake was offered for the best dancers."
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        "(idiomatic, informal) Something that is easy or simple, or that does not present a great challenge."
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      "code": "pl",
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      "sense": "something easy",
      "tags": [
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      ],
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    },
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      "sense": "something easy",
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        "To perform the cakewalk dance."
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      "raw_glosses": [
        "(intransitive) To perform the cakewalk dance."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "intransitive"
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}

Download raw JSONL data for cakewalk meaning in All languages combined (6.9kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-12-15 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-12-04 using wiktextract (8a39820 and 4401a4c). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.