dancer



gandy dancer

old fashioned A worker in a railway gang who lays and maintains railroad tracks. My grandaddy worked as a gandy dancer building the first stretch of railroads across the state.
See also: dancer

be half the [dancer/writer etc.] you used to be

if you are half the dancer, writer etc. you used to be, you are much less good at doing something than you used to be She's half the tennis-player she used to be.
See also: half, used

erotic dancer

n. a dancer, typically female, who performs teasing and sexually stimulating dances, usually on a stage. She was a school teacher by day and an erotic dancer by night.
See also: dancer

grave-dancer

n. someone who profits from or takes advantage of someone else’s misfortune. (From dance on someone’s grave, seemingly in celebration of someone else’s misfortune.) I don’t want to seem like a grave-dancer, but his defeat places me in line for a promotion.

lap dancer

n. an exotic dancer who writhes and rubs her posterior on the lap of a seated customer. Most of us lap dancers follow rules about no touching.
See also: dancer, lap

pole dancer

n. a woman, thought of as a stripper, who performs erotic dances around a metal pole, onstage, exploiting the pole’s phallic form. Jed swears that he has never seen an inept pole dancer.
See also: dancer, pole

Common Names:

NameGenderPronouncedUsage
Cristianakree-STYAH-nah (Italian)Italian, Portuguese
Alonah-LONHebrew
GretaGRE-tah (German), GRET-ə (English)Swedish, German, English
TadijaTAH-dee-yahCroatian
Nebuchadnezzar-Ancient Near Eastern (Anglicized), Biblical
SheldonSHEL-dənEnglish