The Collaborative International Dictionary
fox-trot \fox"-trot`\, foxtrot \fox"trot`\v. i. To dance the foxtrot.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
also foxtrot, 1872, "a slow trot or jog trot, a pace with short steps," such as a fox's, especially of horses, from fox (n.) + trot (n.). As a type of popular dance to ragtime music, from late 1914, a fad in 1915. The early writing on the dance often seems unaware of the equestrian pace of the same name, and instead associated it with the turkey trot one-step dance that was popular a few years before.\n\nAs a variation of the one-step, as a legitimate successor to all the objectionable trots, the fox trot has attained a form which is in a fair way to become permanent. ... It has the charm of being an absolute fit for many of the most alluring transient tunes; and it can be danced, without self-consciousness, by hundreds of people who never pretended to be graceful or dancefully talented.
[Maurice Mouvet, "Maurice's Art of Dancing," 1915]
WordNet
n. a ballroom dance in quadruple time; combines short and long and fast and slow steps fixed sequences [syn: foxtrot]
Usage examples of "fox-trot".
Also there were Saturday-night dance classes, socially mandatory, between the two schools, held in our gymnasium under the tutelage of Miss Something-or-Other, where, in respective taffeta dresses and dark suits, we learned the fox-trot, the waltz, the rhumba, and the Mexican hat dance.
A fox-trot ended, the crowd shifted, and Annie spotted Frank Saulter, not in his official khakis but in country tweeds.
Inside, dancers were fox-trotting to an accordion player and a violinist.
A mutual interest in ballroom dancing had resulted in their introduction when each needed a new partner for a fox-trot and swing competition.
Swing was my' era, Jake, and on back clear to the Bunny Hug-though I didn't learn to dance until the fox-trot crowded out the rest.
Smiling, she raises her arms, spins, and finds herself expertly grasped by Tom Tom's twin brother, eighty-six-year-old Hermie Boettcher, the retired geography teacher in A17 formerly considered something of a stick, who without a word fox-trots her right out to the middle of the floor.
Sinatra called Mother Phan, ‘A great old broad,’ Mai danced with her father, Ton got tipsy for the first time in his life, Sheila Ingrid Julia Rosalyn Winona Lilith answered to three other names, and Del whispered to Tommy, as they did a fox-trot, ‘This is reality, tofu man, because reality is what we carry in our hearts, and my heart is full of beauty just for you.
Sinatra called Mother Phan, “A great old broad,” Mai danced with her father, Ton got tipsy for the first time in his life, Sheila Ingrid Julia Rosalyn Winona Lilith answered to three other names, and Del whispered to Tommy, as they did a fox-trot, “This is reality, tofu man, because reality is what we carry in our hearts, and my heart is full of beauty just for you.