pirouette

plural pirouettes

1. A whirling or turning on the toes in dancing, primarily in ballet.

   […]like what?—like the most beautiful pirouette by [Marie] Taglioni, let us say.

   1846, Mr. M. A. Titmarsh [pseudonym; W. M. Thackeray], Notes on a Journey from Cornhill to Grand Cairo […] , London: Chapman and Hall

   3 more examples

   But the Emperor’s friend covered himself with glory, for he danced everything, whether he knew it or not, and introduced impromptu pirouettes when the figures bewildered him..

   1868–1869, Louisa M[ay] Alcott, Little Women: […], (please specify |part=1 or 2), Boston, Mass.: Roberts Brothers, →OCLC

   "Serious as cognitohazard." Lillihammer danced down the corridor towards them, doing little pirouettes and leaping from toe to toe. "Reuben Wirth no longer exists. Gonna have to get Forsythe to do that brain scan to make sure I'm clean, but otherwise yeah. Poof."

   2023 October 14, HarryBlank, “Face Time”, in SCP Foundation, archived from the original on 23 May 2024

   There is no west, the sun doesn't rise / No, the sun never rests / As the Earth leans into its forever pirouette

   2025, “Pay Streak”, in Scratch It, performed by U.S. Girls

2. The whirling about of a horse.
3. A wooden mouthpiece assembly or lip rest used in some European double-reed instruments.

present singular third person pirouettes · participle present pirouetting · participle past pirouetted · past pirouetted

1. intransitiveTo perform a pirouette; to whirl on the toes, like a dancer.

   The way in which they dance; the height to which they spring; the impossible and inhuman extent to which they pirouette; […].

   1846, Charles Dickens, Pictures from Italy, London: […] Bradbury & Evans, […], →OCLC

   2 more examples

   At last they paused, and a beautiful young woman sprang out of the ranks and began to pirouette in front of us with a grace and vigour which would have put most ballet girls to shame.

   1885 September, H[enry] Rider Haggard, King Solomon’s Mines, London; Paris: Cassell & Company, […], published 1887, →OCLC

   I came down like a sack of coals. The pulse was rapid, the blood pressure high, and for awhile the Blue Room pirouetted about me like an adagio dancer.

   1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter VIII, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC