an old French dance in moderately quick quadruple meter.
2.
a piece of music for, or in the rhythm of, this dance, often forming one of the movements in the classical suite, usually following the saraband.
Also, ga⋅vot.
Origin: 1690–1700; < F < Pr gavoto a mountaineer of Provence, a dance of such mountaineers, appar. deriv. of gava bird's crop (prob. < pre-L *gaba throat, crop, goiter), alluding to the prevalence of goiter among the mountaineers
[guh-vot] 
