Definition of "rumba" [rumba]

• A dance of Cuban origin, combining complex footwork with a pronounced movement of the hips. (noun)
• A modern ballroom adaptation of this dance. (noun)
• Music for this dance or in this style. (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.

• "Mr. P é rez Firmat suggests that one attraction of the rumba was that it was less threatening than, say, Argentina 's overtly seductive tango: Smooth rather than sultry, the rumba is a dance of courtship, not possession."
• "Mr. SANABRIA: Right well this is - in Cuban music, it's what we call a rumba arietta (ph), an open rumba."
• "He retired on his Social Security to fish and golf inFloridaand enrolled in rumba classes where he took up with a Cuban divorcée twenty years his junior."