dance card
nounUK /ˈdɑːns kɑːd/ · US /ˈdæns ˌkɑɹd/
Etymology From dance + card (“flat, normally rectangular piece of stiff paper, etc.; list of scheduled events, etc.”).
1
Figuratively An appointment schedule.
- My dance card is full this week. What about meeting next week?
- I won't be leaving this room, Leo. And you're the only name on my dance card, sweetheart. Thanks for lunch.2009, Pat Conroy, “The Tenderloin”, in South of Broad, London: Corvus, Grove Atlantic, published January 2010, →ISBN:
3 more examples
- Next on her [Ellie Kendrick's] rapidly filling dance card is 'An Education', a Nick Hornby-scripted movie co-starring fellow rising star Carey Mulligan.2009 February 15, “The IoS Hot List”, in The Independent on Sunday, London: Independent News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 11 Feb 2021:
- It's going to be a ball when NASA's Dawn spacecraft finally arrives at the dwarf planet Ceres, and mission managers have now inked in the schedule on Dawn's dance card.2013 December 3, “NASA’s Dawn Fills Out Its Ceres Dance Card”, in Jet Propulsion Laboratory, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, archived from the original on 31 May 2021:
- As for not working on the "Sex and the City" reboot, she [Patricia Field] said, "The main reason was a time conflict. I wasn't able to be in New York doing that and be in Paris doing 'Emily in Paris.' […] My dance card was full."2021 May 25, Rosemary Feitelberg, “Patricia Field Talks ‘Emily in Paris,’ ‘Sex and the City’ and ‘Run the World’”, in Women’s Wear Daily, New York, N.Y.: Fairchild Publ., →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 26 May 2021:
2
Figuratively A list of items.
- [Quentin] Tarantino went on: "I never follow the normal dance card that the genre or the subgenres I deal in usually play by. […] I want it to become something bigger and more expansive than that given subgenre."2009 August 21, “‘Inglourious Basterds’ director Quentin Tarantino picks his favorite WWII movies”, in Pioneer Press, St. Paul, Minn.: Northwest Publications, published 13 November 2015, →ISSN, archived from the original on 31 May 2021:
- [T]he dance card of companies spying on you while you are online is chocker already.2018 November 29, Rebecca Stevenson, “Huawei for Dummies: China’s Tech Company and Why It’s been Banned by Our Spies”, in Stuff, archived from the original on 12 Nov 2020:
1 more example
- And yet, given how the carnage unfolded, a surprising number of named characters survived. There are still a few unknowns, but the survey of who was left standing as the episode drew to a close was an awfully full dance card.2019 April 28, Alex McLevy, “Game Of Thrones Suffers the Fog of War in the Battle against the Dead (Newbies)”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the original on 31 May 2021:
3
Dance, Dancing, Hobbies, Lifestyle, Sports Dated A card on which a person (usually a woman) lists those with whom they have agreed to dance.
- How could your dance card be full already, Martha? You just got here.
- […] A. E. Chasmar & Co, Art Stationers and Engravers, 734 Broadway, N.Y. Makers of Fine Engraved work, Artistic Menus, Dance Cards and Souverniers.^([sic – meaning Souvenirs]) One of our specialties is the Exact Reproduction of Jeweled Society Pins on Menus, Dance Cards, etc.1886 December, “Advertisements”, in Amherst Literary Monthly, volume I, number 6, Amherst, Mass.: Senior Class at Amherst College, →OCLC:
4 more examples
- [A]t the Belvedere dance on Friday he came and implored me to tell him what colour Lady Blebbins was wearing. It was hyacinth and daffodil faille—the simplest thing, but he was awfully at a loss, poor fellow! And afterwards I saw him put it down on the back of his dance-card.1893, Sara Jeannette Duncan, chapter XII, in The Simple Adventures of a Memsahib, London: Chatto & Windus, […], →OCLC, page 142:
- Another peculiar custom of the promenade is the way in which a young woman's dance card is filled up. When a young man invites a young woman to the Junior Promenade he usually does it some months beforehand. As soon as it is settled that she is to come he makes plans for her pleasure by securing for her agreeable partners. In order to facilitate this, preliminary dance cards are issued, and for several weeks before the promenade men are busy in exchanging dances with one another. Thus the young woman's card is entirely filled long before she and her chaperon set foot in New Haven.1895 February, Walter Camp, “A Junior Promenade”, in James H. Worman, editor, Outing: An Illustrated Monthly Magazine of Sport, Travel and Recreation, volume XXV, number 5, New York, N.Y.; London: The Outing Company, →OCLC, page 399:
- But all that you are sure of is that your escort offers you his arm with a smile and a stiff bow, that you walk nervously up the winding stairs, step into a dazzle of light, where members of the dance committee are running hither and thither with dance-cards and girls, and where patronesses are smiling, bowing, looking stately, holding their fans, and doing whatever patronesses usually do.1895, Jesse Lynch Williams, “When Girls Come to Princeton”, in Princeton Stories, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC, pages 200–201:
- [[Episode 1: Telemachus], page 10] Her secrets: old feather fans, tassled dancecards, powdered with musk, a gaud of amber beads in her locked drawer. […] [page 423] In a onepiece evening frock executed in moonlight blue, a tinsel sylph's diadem on her brow with her dancecard fallen beside her moonblue satin slipper, curves her palm softly, breathing quickly.1922 February, James Joyce, “[Episode 1: Telemachus]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC, part I [Telemachia], pages 10 and 423: