Chapter Dance to Dante and Beatrice of D by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Pompilius in honour of Mars. They were executed by twelve priests selected from the highest of the nobility, and the dances were performed in the temple while sacrifices were being made and hymns sung to the god.
    The Dancing Dervishes celebrate their religious rites with dances, which consist chiefly of spinning round and round a little allotted space, not in couples, but each one alone.
   In ancient times the Gauls, the Germans, the Spaniards, and the English too had their sacred dances. In fact, in all religious ceremonies the dance was an essential part of divine worship. In India dancing is a part of religious worship in which the priests join.
   See Danse.

Dancing-water (The), which beautifies ladies, makes them young again, and enriches them. It fell in a cascade in the Burning Forest, and could only be reached by an underground passage. Prince Chery fetched a bottle of this water for his beloved Fair-star, but was aided by a dove. (Fairy Tales, by the Comtesse d'Aulnoy.)

Dandelion A flower. The word is a corruption of the French dent de lion (lion's tooth), Also called Leontodon (lion-tooth, Greek), from a supposed resemblance between its leaves and the teeth of lions.

Dander Is your dander up or riz? Is your angry passion up? This is generally considered to be an Americanism; but Halliwell gives, in his Archaic Dictionary, both dander (anger) and dandy (distracted), the former common to several counties, and the latter peculiar to Somersetshire.

Dandie Dinmont A jovial, true-hearted store-farmer, in Sir Walter Scott's Guy Mannering. Also a hardy hairy short-legged terrier.

"From this dog descended Davidson of Hyndlee's breed, the original Dandie-Dinmont." T. Brown: Our Dogs, p.104.

Dandin (French). A ninny, a snob. From Molière's comedy of George Dandin.

Dandin (George). A French cit, who marries a sprig of nobility, and lives with his wife's parents. Madame appeals on all occasions to her father and mother, who, of course, take her part against her husband. Poor George is in a sad plight, and is for ever lamenting his fate with the expression, Vous l'avez voulu, George Dandin (`Tis your own fault, George Dandin). George Dandin stands for anyone who marries above his sphere, and is pecked by his wife and mother-in-law. The word means "a ninny." (Molière's comedy so called.)
   Perrin Dandin. A sort of Lynch judge in Rabelais, who seated himself on the trunk of the first tree he came to, and there decided the causes submitted to him.

Dandiprat orDandëprat, according to Camden, is a small coin issued in the reign of Henry VII. Applied to a little fellow, it is about equal to our modern expression, a little "twopenny-ha'penny" fellow.

Dando (A). One who frequents hotels, eating-houses, and other such places, satisfies his appetite, and decamps without payment.

Dandy A coxcomb; a fop. The feminine of "dandy" is either dandilly or dandizett. Egan says the word was first used in 1813, but examples of the word occur at least one hundred years before that date. (French, dandin, a ninny, a vain, conceited fellow.)

Dandyism The manners, etc., of a dandy; like a dandy.

Dane's Skin (A). A freckled skin. Red hair and a freckled skin are the traditional characteristics of Danish blood.

Dangle A theatrical amateur in Sheridan's Critic. It was designed for Thomas Vaughan, a playwright.

Daniel Lambert weighed 739 lbs. In 1841 eleven young men stood within his waistcoat buttoned. (1770- 1809.)

Danism Lending money on usury. (Greek, daneisma, a loan.)