dance of death

noun

1. a symbolic dance in which Death, represented as a skeleton, leads people or skeletons to their grave.
2. a representation of this theme in art.

dance of death

noun

1. 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

Word History and Origins

Origin of dance of death¹

First recorded in 1470–80