buck-and-wing

English

Etymology

From buck meaning dance and wing referring to the wing-like flapping of the arms.

Noun

buck-and-wing (countable and uncountable, plural buck-and-wings)

1. (historical) A form of tap dance with gliding, sliding, and stomping movements performed at high speed.
2. (colloquial) Something done during a presentation by the presenter to distract from any negative aspects.
   • 1984, Donald Revell, “The Desperate Buck and Wing: James Tate and the Failure of Ritual.”, in Western Humanities Review, volume 38, number 4, page 363:

     His abrupt changes of mood and tone disturb even as they dazzle the reader, insisting upon the urgency of Tate's subjects and upon the emotional precariousness of the situations in which he finds them.

   • 2010, Ralph Keyes, “Peacekeeper”, in Euphemania: Our Love Affair with Euphemisms, page 122:

     With his show-business background, Reagan was unusually deft at this type of verbal buck and wing. At the president's behest, his administration renamed the multiwarhead MX missile — capable of destroying multiple major cities and tens, if not hundreds, of millions of civilians