Meanings
present singular third person prances · participle present prancing · participle past pranced · past pranced
- colloquialfigurativelyTo strut about in a showy manner.
John's daughter was prancing about the sitting room, practicing for her school dance.
1 more example
“So, so beautiful. I'm gonna do one last roly-poly before we go. [snorting, squealing] At least I had one moment of joy in a life of drudgery. Where will the truffle hunt take us next?” “Nowhere. You're free, Jambone. I'm releasing you from nose jail.” “Really? I can stay here in this paradise and prance and frolic?” “Just stick to frolicking.” “[emotional] Thank you, Mr. Bender. You're the kindest person I've ever met.” “Really? [crying] That's horrible.”
2025 September 15, David A. Goodman, “The Trouble with Truffles” (18:04 from the start), in Futurama, season 10, episode 9, spoken by Jambone (Maria Bamford)
plural prances
- A prancing movement.
There seemed a little prance of triumph in his movement,
1915, D. H. Lawrence, The Rainbow
Synonyms & antonyms
verbto walk with a lofty proud gait, often in an attempt to impress others
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Middle Englishpranken“to prank”
- Middle Englishprancen
- Englishprance
From Middle English prancen, prauncen (“to prance”, literally “to show off”), variant of Middle English pranken (“to prank”), thus probably from the same ultimate root as prank. Cognate with Bavarian prangezen, prangssen (“to put on airs”), Alemannic German pranzen (“to strut”).
More words from Middle English
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Arabic اِسْتَنَاصَ, نَاصَ
- اِسْتَنَاصَ (istanāṣa)of a horse
- نَاصَ (nāṣa)of a horse
Bulgarian ходя важно, изправям се на задни крака
- ходя важно (hodja važno)to strut
- изправям се на задни крака (izpravjam se na zadni kraka)of a horse
Catalan presumir, alzinar
- presumirto strut
- alzinarof a horse
- encabritarof a horse
Chinese Mandarin 騰躍 /腾跃
- 騰躍 /腾跃of a horse
Danish spankulere, stejle
- spankulereto strut
- stejleof a horse
Dutch paraderen, steigeren
- paraderento strut
- steigerenof a horse
Esperanto pranci
- pranciof a horse
French parader, se cabrer
- paraderto strut
- se cabrerof a horse
Italian impennare, fare un'impennata
- impennareof a horse
- fare un'impennataof a horse
Māori pīkarikari
- pīkarikarito strut
Norwegian sprade
- spradeto strut
Portuguese pavonear-se, empinar
- pavonear-seto strut
- empinarof a horse
Russian ва́жничать, гарцева́ть
- ва́жничать (vážničatʹ)to strut
- гарцева́ть (garcevátʹ)to strut
- встава́ть на дыбы́ (vstavátʹ na dybý)of a horse
- станови́ться на дыбы́ (stanovítʹsja na dybý)of a horse
- встать на дыбы́ (vstatʹ na dybý)of a horse
Spanish pavonearse, alardear
- pavonearseto strut
- alardearto strut
- encabritarseof a horse
- escarcearof a horse
Turkish kasılmak, şahlanmak
- kasılmakto strut
- şahlanmakof a horse
- şaha kalkmakof a horse
Welsh prancio, ymgodi
- prancioto strut
- ymgodiof a horse
- ymsythuof a horse
Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with prance
Anagrams
Cite this entry
prance. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/prance
“prance.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/prance. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “prance,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/prance.
Source: prance on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.