"dance around" meaning in English

See dance around in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Forms: dances around [present, singular, third-person], dancing around [participle, present], danced around [participle, past], danced around [past]
Head templates: {{en-verb|*}} dance around (third-person singular simple present dances around, present participle dancing around, simple past and past participle danced around)
  1. (colloquial, transitive) To avoid (a topic) by circumlocution etc. Tags: colloquial, transitive
    Sense id: en-dance_around-en-verb-PX~E0FJp Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English phrasal verbs formed with "around", Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 51 28 22 Disambiguation of English phrasal verbs formed with "around": 52 24 25 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 51 29 20 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 67 20 13
  2. (colloquial, intransitive) To lead on or delay by deceit; to cause someone to waste time. Tags: colloquial, intransitive
    Sense id: en-dance_around-en-verb-dvnERSTy
  3. (intransitive) Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see dance, around. Tags: intransitive
    Sense id: en-dance_around-en-verb-D1NN7Dge

Inflected forms

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "dances around",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "dancing around",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "danced around",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "danced around",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "dance around (third-person singular simple present dances around, present participle dancing around, simple past and past participle danced around)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "51 28 22",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "52 24 25",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English phrasal verbs formed with \"around\"",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "51 29 20",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "67 20 13",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To avoid (a topic) by circumlocution etc."
      ],
      "id": "en-dance_around-en-verb-PX~E0FJp",
      "links": [
        [
          "avoid",
          "avoid"
        ],
        [
          "topic",
          "topic"
        ],
        [
          "circumlocution",
          "circumlocution"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(colloquial, transitive) To avoid (a topic) by circumlocution etc."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "colloquial",
        "transitive"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "glosses": [
        "To lead on or delay by deceit; to cause someone to waste time."
      ],
      "id": "en-dance_around-en-verb-dvnERSTy",
      "links": [
        [
          "lead on",
          "lead on"
        ],
        [
          "delay",
          "delay"
        ],
        [
          "deceit",
          "deceit"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(colloquial, intransitive) To lead on or delay by deceit; to cause someone to waste time."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "colloquial",
        "intransitive"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "glosses": [
        "Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see dance, around."
      ],
      "id": "en-dance_around-en-verb-D1NN7Dge",
      "links": [
        [
          "dance",
          "dance#English"
        ],
        [
          "around",
          "around#English"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(intransitive) Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see dance, around."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "intransitive"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "dance around"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English phrasal verbs",
    "English phrasal verbs formed with \"around\"",
    "English verbs",
    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries"
  ],
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "dances around",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "dancing around",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "danced around",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "danced around",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "dance around (third-person singular simple present dances around, present participle dancing around, simple past and past participle danced around)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English colloquialisms",
        "English transitive verbs"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To avoid (a topic) by circumlocution etc."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "avoid",
          "avoid"
        ],
        [
          "topic",
          "topic"
        ],
        [
          "circumlocution",
          "circumlocution"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(colloquial, transitive) To avoid (a topic) by circumlocution etc."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "colloquial",
        "transitive"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English colloquialisms",
        "English intransitive verbs"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To lead on or delay by deceit; to cause someone to waste time."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "lead on",
          "lead on"
        ],
        [
          "delay",
          "delay"
        ],
        [
          "deceit",
          "deceit"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(colloquial, intransitive) To lead on or delay by deceit; to cause someone to waste time."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "colloquial",
        "intransitive"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English intransitive verbs"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see dance, around."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "dance",
          "dance#English"
        ],
        [
          "around",
          "around#English"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(intransitive) Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see dance, around."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "intransitive"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "dance around"
}

Download raw JSONL data for dance around meaning in English (1.8kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-07-09 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-07-06 using wiktextract (e62056b and e7887d5). 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.