The person who opens a ball or leads off a dance (see Hollyband’s Dictionary, 1593). The dance referred to was commenced by the party taking hands round in a ring, instead of in two lines as in the country dance. The leader in both cases has to set the figures. One who organises and leads a party.
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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.
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