sashay

Metathesis of French chassé, past participle of chasser (“chase”), from Latin captō, frequentative of capiō (“I take”).

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• Homophone: sachet
• Rhymes: -æʃeɪ

sashay (plural sashays)

1. A chassé.
2. A sequence of sideways steps in a circle in square dancing.

sashay (third-person singular simple present sashays, present participle sashaying, simple past and past participle sashayed)

1. (intransitive) To walk casually, showily or in a flirty manner; to strut, swagger or flounce.
   • 1994, Walter Dean Myers, The Glory Field‎, →ISBN Invalid ISBN, page 80:

     Goldie pulled her skirts up in front of her, gave Elijah a look over her shoulder, and sashayed away.

2. (intransitive) To chassé when dancing.
3. (intransitive) To move sideways.
   • 2015, Louise Taylor, Papiss Cissé and Jonny Evans spitting row mars Manchester United’s win over Newcastle (in The Guardian, 4 March 2015)

     Games can hinge on the sort of controversial decision made by Taylor in the 10th minute. After Rivière collected Gabriel Obertan’s pass and sashayed beyond Daley Blind he drew the United centre- half into a rash, clumsy challenge but, puzzlingly, Taylor detected no penalty.