waltz

plural waltzes

1. A ballroom dance in 3/4 time.

   Miss Esler and Mr. McMorrow went to Kalgoorlie to adjudicate at the goldfields waltz and quickstep championships, and found the standard of dancing surprisingly high.

   1938 October 26, The Daily News, Perth, page 11, column 5

2. A piece of music for this dance (or in triple time).
3. informalA simple task.

present singular third person waltzes · participle present waltzing · participle past waltzed · past waltzed

1. intransitivetransitiveTo dance the waltz (with).

   While waltzing her around the room, he stepped on her toes only once.

   2 more examples

   They waltzed for twenty-one hours and seventeen minutes straight, setting a record.

   "Can you flamenco?" "If I have to. How about you?" "Love, I can barely waltz. Jive a bit if I'm pissed enough."

   2010, Peter Corris, Torn Apart, Allen and Unwin, page 212

2. intransitivetransitiveusuallyinto; around; into; aroundTo move briskly and unhesitatingly, especially in an inappropriately casual manner, or when unannounced or uninvited.

   He waltzed into the room like he owned the place.

   3 more examples

   You can't just waltz him in here without documentation!

   Oxlade-Chamberlain, 18, became the youngest English Champions League scorer when he waltzed across the area to plant a low shot into the corner.

   2011 September 28, Tom Rostance, “Arsenal 2 - 1 Olympiakos”, in BBC Sport

   The women in Ms. Telfer’s book waltz right by societal rules that would leave the rest of us at a standstill. We are left tsk-tsking, while also in awe.

   2021 February 25, Mara Altman, “Glitzy, Tragic and Selfish: Female Con Artists Waltz by Society’s Rules”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

3. informalTo accomplish a task with little effort.

   Don't worry about the interview — you'll waltz it.

   Synonyms: breeze through

4. transitiveTo move with fanfare.

   1 more example

   And he said, what he had planned in his head from the start, if we got Jim out all safe, was for us to[…] take him back up home on a steamboat, in style, and pay him for his lost time, and write word ahead and get out all the niggers around, and have them waltz him into town with a torchlight procession and a brass-band, and then he would be a hero, and so would we.

   1884 December 10, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], “Chapter the last”, in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: (Tom Sawyer’s Comrade) […], London: Chatto & Windus, […], →OCLC

plural Waltzes

1. countableuncountableA surname.

   1 more example

   According to the Atlantic, national security adviser Mike Waltz earlier this month convened a text conversation with top US officials, including Vice President JD Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, to discuss strikes on Houthi militants in Yemen who had been threatening international shipping in the Red Sea. Waltz, apparently accidentally, added Atlantic editor in chief Jeffrey Goldberg to the chain.

   2025 March 24, Katie Bo Lillis, Kaitlan Collins, Jeff Zeleny, Evan Perez, Oren Liebermann, Jamie Gangel, Kit Maher and Sean Lyngaas, “Trump’s national security adviser added a journalist to text chat on highly sensitive Yemen strike plans”, in CNN

2. A place in the United States:
   1. countableuncountableA township in Wabash County, Indiana.
   2. countableuncountableAn unincorporated community in Rowan County, Kentucky.
   3. countableuncountableAn unincorporated community in Huron Township, Wayne County, Michigan.