Definition of "cancan" [can•can]

• An exuberant dance that originated in France, performed by women and marked by high kicking. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Is it mere coincidence that the most representative Parisian dance is called the cancan?"
• "After dinner du Maurier and Barty sang capital songs of the quartier latin, and told stories of the atelier, and even danced a kind of cancan together -- an invention of their own -- which they called "_le dernier des Abencerrages_.""
• "The word "cancan" in French means "scandal," and the high-kicks and lifting and tossing of skirts did scandalize"