ring shout: Meaning and Definition of

ring' shout"

Pronunciation: [key]
  1. a group dance of West African origin introduced into parts of the southern U.S. by black revivalists, performed by shuffling counterclockwise in a circle while answering shouts of a preacher with corresponding shouts, and held to be, in its vigorous antiphonal patterns, a source in the development of jazz.
Random House Unabridged Dictionary, Copyright © 1997, by Random House, Inc., on Infoplease.