"merry dance" meaning in English

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "merry dances",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "merry dance (plural merry dances)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "The children led us on a merry dance with their stories of strangers and shadows in the night."
        },
        {
          "ref": "1912, Stratemeyer Syndicate, chapter 1, in Baseball Joe on the School Nine",
          "text": "\"That's what happened to me the last time you fired a high snowball. Peaches. That's why I didn't want you to try another while I'm around. You wait until I'm off the campus if you've got to indulge in high jinks. Come on now, fellows, since Peaches has promised to behave himself, let the merry dance go on. Have you tried a shot, Joe? Or you, Sister,\" and Teeter looked at the newcomers.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2023 March 5, Phil McNulty, “Liverpool 7-0 Manchester United”, in BBC Sport",
          "text": "Argentine defender Martinez, normally so reliable and combative, was taken apart, especially when Salah led him a merry dance to set up Gakpo to settle the game with Liverpool's third five minutes after half-time.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A useless waste of time resulting from a deception."
      ],
      "id": "en-merry_dance-en-noun-GS40Th3e",
      "links": [
        [
          "useless",
          "useless"
        ],
        [
          "waste of time",
          "waste of time"
        ],
        [
          "deception",
          "deception"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) A useless waste of time resulting from a deception."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "chase a rainbow"
        },
        {
          "word": "lead someone a dance"
        },
        {
          "word": "the cake is a lie"
        }
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "merry chase"
        },
        {
          "word": "wild-goose chase"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-merry dance.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/8/83/En-au-merry_dance.ogg/En-au-merry_dance.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/83/En-au-merry_dance.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "merry dance"
}

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "merry dances",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "merry dance (plural merry dances)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "chase a rainbow"
    },
    {
      "word": "lead someone a dance"
    },
    {
      "word": "the cake is a lie"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English countable nouns",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English idioms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English nouns",
        "English terms with audio links",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "The children led us on a merry dance with their stories of strangers and shadows in the night."
        },
        {
          "ref": "1912, Stratemeyer Syndicate, chapter 1, in Baseball Joe on the School Nine",
          "text": "\"That's what happened to me the last time you fired a high snowball. Peaches. That's why I didn't want you to try another while I'm around. You wait until I'm off the campus if you've got to indulge in high jinks. Come on now, fellows, since Peaches has promised to behave himself, let the merry dance go on. Have you tried a shot, Joe? Or you, Sister,\" and Teeter looked at the newcomers.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2023 March 5, Phil McNulty, “Liverpool 7-0 Manchester United”, in BBC Sport",
          "text": "Argentine defender Martinez, normally so reliable and combative, was taken apart, especially when Salah led him a merry dance to set up Gakpo to settle the game with Liverpool's third five minutes after half-time.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A useless waste of time resulting from a deception."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "useless",
          "useless"
        ],
        [
          "waste of time",
          "waste of time"
        ],
        [
          "deception",
          "deception"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) A useless waste of time resulting from a deception."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-merry dance.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/8/83/En-au-merry_dance.ogg/En-au-merry_dance.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/83/En-au-merry_dance.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "merry chase"
    },
    {
      "word": "wild-goose chase"
    }
  ],
  "word": "merry dance"
}