conga
/ˈkɒŋɡə
/noun
1A Latin American dance of African origin, usually with several people in a single line, one behind the other.Inside the Big Swan Stadium, celebrating England fans danced a massive conga through the stands, carrying Japanese children on their shoulders....
- At 9.30 am, I find myself dancing the conga with 100 Ghanaian women.
- Then the band played ‘Road to Amarillo’ and the guests danced the conga through the hotel, and the men played rugby in their kilts at midnight.
2 (also conga drum) A tall, narrow, low-toned drum beaten with the hands.The primary musical instrument is the conga drum....
- Her traditional sokay sound comes from the harmonica and a conga drum known as a balah.
- After a quiet intro where the interweaving trombone and sax establish the melancholy theme, the full band of drums, piano, congas, bass clarinet, trombone, and tenor sax aggressively joins in.
verb (congas, congaing, congaed /ˈkɒŋɡəd/ or conga'd) [no object]
Perform the conga: I caught her round the waist and conga’d...
- The last time I was in Henley on election night was 1992 - I went to conga round the town square, but the presence of policemen rather put me off.
- At Middlesex University students intend to conga through afternoon lectures at its Tottenham campus.
- I have to say there were quite a lot of comments about my dancing as we congaed through the clinic, when I say comments I suppose I mean jokes, apparently the people of Chainda had quite a lot to teach me when it came to shaking my booty!
Origin
1930s: from Latin American Spanish, from Spanish, feminine of congo 'Congolese'.
Rhymes
- blue-ribbonist
- blue-ribbon jury
- blue-ribbon panel
- Blue Ridge Mountains
- blue-ringed octopus
- blue rinse
- blue-rinsed
- blue roach
- blue roan
- blue robin
- blue rock
- blue rocket
- blue ruin
- blues
- Blues and Royals
- blues and twos
- blueschist
- blue screen
- blue-sensitive
- blue shark
- blue sheep
- blue shift
- blue shirt
- blue shortness
- blue-skies