Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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| a gadget; dingus; thingumbob. |
| a children's mummer's parade, as on the Fourth of July, with prizes for the best costumes. |
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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entrechat
(probably from Italian intrecciare: "to weave," or "to braid"), jump in ballet, beginning in the fifth position, during which the dancer crosses his straight legs at the lower calf. Numerous rapid crossings make the entrechat a spectacular jump. Numbers (trois, "three"; quatre, "four"; and so on) are affixed to the term to designate the amount of leg movement (entrechat-quatre has two crossings; entrechat-dix has five). The dancer lands on both feet for even-numbered and on one foot for odd-numbered entrechats. Vaslav Nijinsky's famous jumps reputedly included the entrechat-dix, and an entrechat-douze (six crossings) was performed more recently on English television as danced by Wayne Sleep.
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