Careful Words

dancing (n.)

For you and I are past our dancing days.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Romeo and Juliet. Act i. Sc. 5.

A very merry, dancing, drinking,

Laughing, quaffing, and unthinking time.

John Dryden (1631-1701): The Secular Masque. Line 40.

To many a youth and many a maid

Dancing in the chequer'd shade.

John Milton (1608-1674): L'Allegro. Line 95.

  The art of living is more like wrestling than dancing, in so far as it stands ready against the accidental and the unforeseen, and is not apt to fall.

Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121-180 a d): Meditations. vii. 61.

  We are dancing on a volcano.