Ballerina
a principal female dancer in a ballet company.
Compare prima ballerina.
any female ballet dancer.
a woman’s very low-heeled or heelless shoe or slipper, made to resemble a ballet slipper.
Contemporary Examples
For the record: A bloody toe for a ballerina is like a bruise for a boxer: ho-hum.
Butchery at the Ballet Toni Bentley February 24, 2011
He was bisexual and a ballerina, and this was while I was at the Atlantic Theater Company in Vermont.
Jessica Alba on ‘Sin City,’ Typecasting, and How Homophobia Pushed Her Away From the Church Marlow Stern August 17, 2014
Fact: Penelope Cruz was actually a ballerina for nine years.
Natalie Portman, Black Swan, and the Death of the ‘Triple Threat’ Tricia Romano March 29, 2011
A ballerina without her legs and feet is like a writer without words or a singer without a voice: not one.
Butchery at the Ballet Toni Bentley February 24, 2011
As a ballerina, to embody the duality of the Swan Queen and the black swan can be a fiendishly difficult task.
The Ballerina’s Curse Wendy Whelan December 3, 2010
Historical Examples
You know, my daughter is ballerina and so even I have pictures somewhere with her.
Warren Commission (9 of 26): Hearings Vol. IX (of 15) The President’s Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy
A duke sent me an invitation to take supper with him, as if I were a ballerina!
The Lure of the Mask Harold MacGrath
She could dance like a ballerina by herself, but she could not count “one-two-three-four” twice in succession.
In a Little Town Rupert Hughes
It might have been the cell where years ago a ballerina was immured for a wrong step.
Carnival Compton Mackenzie
Yes; my daughter, she was here, and she is a ballerina and she was visiting Dallas a few times and she knew some people here.
Warren Commission (9 of 26): Hearings Vol. IX (of 15) The President’s Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy
noun
a female ballet dancer
(US) the principal female dancer of a ballet company
n.
1792, from Italian ballerina, literally “dancing girl,” fem. of ballerino “dancer,” from ballo “a dance” (see ball (n.2)). The Italian plural form ballerine formerly sometimes was used in English.
In ballet, a female dancer. (See prima ballerina.)
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- Ballesteros
noun Severiano (sevɛˈrjano). 1957–2011, Spanish professional golfer: won the British Open Championship (1979; 1984; 1988) and the US Masters (1980; 1983) Historical Examples It is the nature of France to prefer to have Rostopchine rather than ballesteros in front of her. Les Misrables Victor Hugo
- Ballet blanc
a ballet in which the ballerinas’ skirts are white.
- Ballet
a classical dance form demanding grace and precision and employing formalized steps and gestures set in intricate, flowing patterns to create expression through movement. a theatrical entertainment in which ballet dancing and music, often with scenery and costumes, combine to tell a story, establish an emotional atmosphere, etc. an interlude of ballet in an operatic […]
- Ballet flat
a shoe with a very flat heel or no heel, resembling a ballet slipper worn by dancers.
- Ballet master
a man who trains a ballet company. Historical Examples The groomsmen, carefully chosen to match, stepped as though trained by a ballet master. The Works of Guy de Maupassant, Vol. 6 Guy de Maupassant He went to Turin as ballet master and met Somis, who induced him to take up the violin and apply himself […]