noun
- Fine Arts. a sinuous, spiraling, undulating, or serpentine line or linear motif.
- a pose in ballet in which the dancer stands on one leg with one arm extended in front and the other leg and arm extended behind.
- a short, fanciful musical piece, typically for piano.
- any ornament or ornamental object, as a rug or mosaic, in which flowers, foliage, fruits, vases, animals, and figures are represented in a fancifully combined pattern.
adjective
- decorated with or characterized by arabesques: arabesque design.
noun
- ballet a classical position in which the dancer has one leg raised behind and both arms stretched out in one of several conventional poses
- music a piece or movement with a highly ornamented or decorated melody
- arts
- a type of curvilinear decoration in painting, metalwork, etc, with intricate intertwining leaf, flower, animal, or geometrical designs
- a design of flowing lines
adjective
- designating, of, or decorated in this style
1610s, “Moorish or Arabic ornamental design,” from French arabesque (16c.), from Italian arabesco, from Arabo “Arab,” with reference to Moorish architecture. As a ballet pose, first attested 1830. Musical sense, in reference to an ornamented theme, is from 1864, originally the title given by Robert Schumann to one of his piano pieces.