Definition of "tarantella" [tar•an•tel•la]

• A lively, whirling southern Italian dance once thought to be a remedy for tarantism. (noun)
• The music for this dance, in 6/8 time. (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.

• "But the tarantella is a novelty to the sight-seeing tourist, who believes he must see everything in order to be an authority when he gets back home."
• "We learn to understand why our addled minds seize so little with precision, why they are caught up and tossed about in a kind of tarantella by headlines and catch-words, why so often they cannot tell things apart or discern identity in apparent differences."
• "On all sides picturesque groups of dancers indulge in the old peasants 'measure, the _percorara, _ to the droning of bagpipes -- a demure kind of tarantella, the male capering about with faun-like attitudes of invitation and snappings of fingers, his partner evading the advances with downcast eyes."