cotillion

noun

1. A bold dance performed in groups of eight where women lift their skirts to display their ankles.

   “Mrs. Hughes now joined them, and asked Miss Tilney if she was ready to go. "I hope I shall have the pleasure of seeing you again soon," said Catherine. "Shall you be at the cotillion ball tomorrow?"”

   “The second figure [of the dance] commenced, and I made a sad bungle; so I did of the third, and fourth, and fifth, for I never had danced a cotillon.”

2. The music regulating the cotillion.
3. (US, abbreviation, alt-of, ellipsis)Ellipsis of cotillion ball, a coming-of-age party meant to present girls newly transitioned into womanhood to the community for courtship.

   “"Well," I answered, at first with uncertainty, then with inspiration, "he would do splendidly to lead your cotillon, if you think of having one." / "So you do not dance, Mr. Crocker?" / I was somewhat set back by her perspicuity.”

   “But now, WASP's want their place in the multicultural sun. Social rituals are social rituals. If there is Kwanzaa, why not cotillions?”

   “At a desk outside the [Bernsteins’] door … I said, ‘Tom Wolfe,’ and sure enough, there he was, Tom Wolfe, listed on a yellow legal pad … Like any boy who has been instructed at cotillion to pay his respects to the host and hostess first … I sought out Leonard and Felicia Bernstein and introduced myself.”

4. A kind of woollen material for women's skirts.

verb

1. (intransitive, rare)To dance the cotillion.