dance to a new tune

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English[edit]

Verb[edit]

dance to a new tune (third-person singular simple present dances to a new tune, present participle dancing to a new tune, simple past and past participle danced to a new tune)

  1. To significantly change one's opinion, attitude, or behavior.
    • 1991, J. L. Granatstein, Robert Bothwell, Pirouette: Pierre Trudeau and Canadian Foreign Policy, →ISBN, page 207:
      Policy was to be bold, not timid; campaign promises were to be carried out, not cynically shelved; and the public service would dance to a new tune, one where the ministers called the tune.
    • 2005, Louis Adams, Diary of a Shattered Spirit, →ISBN, page 46:
      We must ask God to give us strength to dance to a new tune.
    • 2008, Ian Nish, The Iwakura Mission to America and Europe: A New Assessment, →ISBN:
      As a result, the Japanese found themselves having to dance to a new tune and it was one they were scarcely familiar with.
    • 2011, Bob Shaw, The Peace Machine, →ISBN:
      I can make neutrons dance to a new tune, but I shrink from telling a human tick to fasten onto someone else.
  2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see dance,‎ new,‎ tune.