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a foot of three syllables, two short followed by one long in quantitative meter, and two unstressed followed by one stressed in accentual meter, as in for the nonce.
Historical Examples

It will be noted that the dactyl is very closely related in expression to the trochee, and the anapest to the iambic.
Browning and the Dramatic Monologue S. S. Curry

This foot, which is the opposite of the dactyl, is known as the anapest.
Elementary Guide to Literary Criticism F. V. N. Painter

An anapest is a three-syllable foot accented on the last syllable.
English: Composition and Literature W. F. (William Franklin) Webster

Where arm in arm two dancers are entwined,And whirl themselves with strict embracements bound,their feet an anapest do sound.
The Lancashire Witches William Harrison Ainsworth

This may occur when the accent is upon the last syllable of the foot; that is, when the foot is an iambus or an anapest.
English: Composition and Literature W. F. (William Franklin) Webster

It is hovering between the form of the first two feet and the anapest of the last foot.
English: Composition and Literature W. F. (William Franklin) Webster

“anapest” comes from a Greek verb which means “strike back”; an anapest is a reversed dactyl.
Practical English Composition: Book II. Edwin L. Miller

But Voltaire now quit the anapest and dactyl and devoted his best hours to taking fencing lessons.
Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great Philosophers, Volume 8 Elbert Hubbard

The trochee and the dactyl are interchangeable; and the iambus and the anapest are interchangeable.
English: Composition and Literature W. F. (William Franklin) Webster

n.

also anapaest, “two short syllables followed by a long one,” 1670s, from Latin anapestus, from Greek anapaistos “struck back, rebounding,” verbal adjective from anapaiein “to strike back,” from ana- “back” (see ana-) + paiein “to strike,” from PIE *pau- “to cut, strike, stamp” (see pave). So called because it reverses the dactyl.