dance

dance
   1. obsolete
   to be killed by hanging
   Alluding to the kicking of the victim and the gyration of the corpse:
    Spring's passage out was going to be at the end of a rope, and unless I shifted I'd be dancing alongside him. (Fraser, 1982)
   You might also be said to dance on air, at the end of a rope, off, the Tyburn jig, upon nothing, etc.:
    Matthew would be dancing on air by next sun-down. (Monsarrat, 1978)
    The dance-hall was the condemned cell and the dancing master the hangman. To dance a twostep to another world is to be killed, but not necessarily by hanging ... no good keeping souvenirs of that sort when any moment we may be dancing a two-step to another world. (F. Richards, 1933, writing of First World War trench life)
   2. to be involuntarily under another's control
   You have to move when another tells you to, and not necessarily because a gunman is shooting at your feet. Much figurative use.

How not to say what you mean: A dictionary of euphemisms. . 2014.

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Look at other dictionaries:

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