arabesque

plural arabesques · alternative obsolete arabesk

1. alsoattributivearchitectureAn elaborate design of intertwined floral figures or complex geometrical patterns, mainly used in Islamic art and architecture.

   1 more example

   The house of Ruthven was a small but ultra-modern limestone affair, between Madison and Fifth ;[…]. As a matter of fact its narrow ornate façade presented not a single quiet space that the eyes might rest on after a tiring attempt to follow and codify the arabesques, foliations, and intricate vermiculations of what some disrespectfully dubbed as “ near-aissance.”

   1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter V, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC

2. entertainmentAn ornate composition, especially for the piano.
3. balletA dance position in which the dancer stands on one leg, with the other raised backwards, and the arms outstretched.
4. attributivebroadlyElaborate or ornate creations in general.

   For a man who condemned worldly pleasures he ate with elegance. She loved to watch the arabesque of fingers and two forks.

   1995, Gregory Maguire, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, 25th Anniversary edition, William Morrow, published 2020, →ISBN, pages 8–9

   2 more examples

   It was a sort of scene which Adam had beheld almost weekly for years; he knew by heart every arabesque flourish in the framed specimen of Bartle Massey’s handwriting which hung over the schoolmaster’s head, by way of keeping a lofty ideal before the minds of his pupils; […].

   1859, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter XXI, in Adam Bede […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC

   In characterizing some of his tales as 'Arabesque', Poe intended no specific reference to the Arab manner of telling stories. He only used the term to refer to intricately patterned tales (intricate as the design of an oriental carpet) in which the centre of interest lay in the cunningly crafted plot, […]

   2003, Robert Irwin, The Arabian Nights: A Companion, page 210

present singular third person arabesques · participle present arabesquing · participle past arabesqued · past arabesqued · alternative obsolete arabesk

1. intransitiveTo move in an arabesque motion.
2. transitiveTo decorate with an arabesque pattern.