dance of death


noun

a symbolic dance in which Death, represented as a skeleton, leads people or skeletons to their grave.
a representation of this theme in art.
Also called danse macabre.

Origin of dance of death

First recorded in 1470–80

British Dictionary definitions for dance of death

dance of death

noun

a pictorial, literary, or musical representation, current esp in the Middle Ages, of a dance in which living people, in order of social precedence, are led off to their graves, by a personification of death Also called (French): danse macabre