fantastic

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trip the light fantastic

To dance. Taken from the John Milton poem L'Allegro: "Come and trip it as ye go / On the light fantastic toe." Of course, the best part of a wedding is when everyone trips the light fantastic into the wee hours of the morning.

See also: fantastic, light, trip

Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2022 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.

trip the light fantastic

Jocular to dance. Shall we go trip the light fantastic?

See also: fantastic, light, trip

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

trip the light fantastic

Dance, as in Let's go out tonight and trip the light fantastic. This expression was originated by John Milton in L'Allegro (1632): "Come and trip it as ye go, On the light fantastick toe." The idiom uses trip in the sense of "a light, tripping step," and although fantastick was never the name of any particular dance, it survived and was given revived currency in James W. Blake's immensely popular song, The Sidewalks of New York (1894).

See also: fantastic, light, trip

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

trip the light fantastic

dance. humorous

This expression comes from the invitation to dance in John Milton 's poem ‘L'Allegro’ ( 1645 ): ‘Come, and trip it as ye go On the light fantastic toe’.

See also: fantastic, light, trip

Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary © Farlex 2017

trip the light fantastic

To dance.

See also: fantastic, light, trip

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

trip the light fantastic, to

To dance. This locution was coined by John Milton, who wrote, “Come, and trip it as ye go, On the light fantastick toe” (“L’Allegro,” 1632). For some reason it caught on (although fantastick was not then, and never became, the name of a particular dance). James W. Blake used it in the lyrics to a very popular Gay Nineties song, “The Sidewalks of New York” (1894): “We tripped the light fantastic—On the sidewalks of New York.”

See also: light, to, trip

The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer Copyright © 2013 by Christine Ammer

trip the light fantastic

Dance. The phrase comes from John Milton's poem “L'Allegro”: “Come and trip it as ye go / On the light fantastic toe.” “Trip” did not mean to stub your toe and fall. On the contrary it meant “to move lightly and nimbly.”

See also: fantastic, light, trip

Endangered Phrases by Steven D. Price Copyright © 2011 by Steven D. Price