Definition of "arabesque" []

• A ballet position in which the dancer bends forward while standing on one straight leg with the arm extended forward and the other arm and leg extended backward. (noun)
• A complex, ornate design of intertwined floral, foliate, and geometric figures. (noun)
• Music An ornate, whimsical composition especially for piano. (noun)
• An intricate or elaborate pattern or design: "the fluctuating shapes of a cloudscape, the complex arabesque of a camera movement, the blink of a character's eye” ( Nigel Andrews). (noun)
• In the fashion of or formed as an arabesque. (adjective)

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.

• "There's a beautiful sequence where Bond lifts her repeatedly in arabesque, each time on the in-breath, so that she gazes for a rapturous moment at some far horizon before returning to the formal intricacies of the duet."
• "144 I understand the curiously carved windows cut in arabesque-work of marble."
• "He invented that style of decoration which we now call arabesque or grotesque."