strathspey

After Strathspey, valley of the river Spey.

• Rhymes: -eɪ

strathspey (plural strathspeys)

1. A Scottish dance with gliding steps, slower than a reel.
2. A piece of music composed for or in the rhythm of this dance.
   • 1817 December 31 (indicated as 1818), [Walter Scott], chapter IX, in Rob Roy. […], volume II, Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co. […]; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, →OCLC, pages 197–198:

     He muttered an exclamation in Gaelic, strode across the floor, and then, with an air of dogged resolution, as if prepared to see the scene to an end, sate himself down on the oak table and whistled a strathspey.

   • 1982, TC Boyle, Water Music, Penguin, published 2006, page 239:

     Arms are raised, the cheers are deafening, the pipes turn to a strathspey and a whole section of the crowd launches into a mad jig.