bolero

plural boleros

1. danceA lively Spanish dance in 3/4 time; also an unrelated slower-tempo dance of Cuban origin, in 2/4 time.

   Edward's attention was at first rivetted on two dancers engaged in their graceful national dance, the bolero. What a blessing to a people is a climate that encourages out-of-door amusement!

   1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XXII, in Romance and Reality. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 335

2. fashionA type of short, buttonless jacket or blouse, open or tied in front and ending at the diaphragm.

   He took the bolero, which was made of soft angora, and rubbed it up and down his cheek.

   2009, Jennifer Worth, Farewell to the East End, Weidenfeld & Nicholson, page 175

   1 more example

   It must have been a balm to have [Naomi] Wolf come along at the dawn of a new decade and wear the badge as if it were a chic bolero jacket, as was the style back then.

   2023, Naomi Klein, “Diagonal Lines”, in Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, →ISBN

present singular third person boleros · participle present boleroing · participle past boleroed · past boleroed

1. intransitiveTo dance the bolero.