1. a French dance in moderate 4/4 time, popular in the 17th and 18th centuries
Usage: historical
2. a piece of music written for or in the style of this dance

Examples

• The dancers performed an elegant gavotte at the royal court.
• Bach composed several gavottes in his keyboard suites.
• The gavotte was a favorite dance among French aristocrats.
• She learned to play a beautiful gavotte on the piano.
• The ballet included a traditional gavotte in the second act.
• Musicians often study the gavotte as an example of Baroque dance forms.