/ˈhɑːkə/ · noun
A group dance of New Zealand's Māori people featuring rhythmic chanting, vigorous facial and arm movements, and foot stamping. Traditionally a war dance, today it is also performed to welcome guests, as a mark of respect at occasions such as commemorations and funerals, as a challenge to opposing teams at sports events, and for artistic purposes..
After each of my retinue were presented to the chief, partaking of the honour of the ougi, or salutation, the hákà, or dance of welcome, was performed; this was commenced by our entertainers, who placed themselves in an extended line, in ranks four deep. This dance, to a stranger witnessing it for the first time, is calculated to excite the most alarming fears; […]
A "Haka" is the native dance, answering to the corroboree of the Australian aboriginals, and we were anxious to see it. […] Later in the evening, however, the complaisant Herekiekie entertained a small and select party at a "Haka" in his "whare" or house (pronounced wharry). It was exactly what I expected. The performers, all male, stood in a row, one, slightly advanced, acting as fugleman. They shouted and gesticulated with the most hideous and revolting gestures, grimaces, and yells.
[T]he children might get up and dance in the middle of their sums. Matawhero might stand up and lead a haka if I'm not careful. Oh dear.
An already febrile atmosphere within the ground before the start had been stoked still further when France's players formed an arrow formation to face down the haka, and then advanced slowly over halfway as the capacity crowd roared.
The Maori haka ritual has been made famous by the All Blacks, New Zealand's national rugby team. Before each match, the All Blacks face their opponents and engage in a synchronized display of hand-slapping, feet-stomping, chest-pumping, tongue-wagging, and eye-popping chanting and dancing designed to intimidate their opponents. The All Blacks' version of the haka is called ka-mate, a war haka or peruperu. […] But hakas are not restricted to war; they are also used as a welcome to strangers, as part of a funeral, or as part of various celebrations and ceremonies.
[T]hey hoisted him up to the ridge pole and lighted the fire; they began to haka, when they were tired of that they sang songs, […]
[page 213] The haka is one of the Maori's most honourable games that can be performed to entertain strangers; and when such is played it is a sign of a people of chiefs and days of peace. The people played this game to her that Te-kahu-rere-moa might haka and entertain them, that they might see how beautifully she could haka. […] [page 214] She hakaed for some time, and all the people were quite in love with her.
We captured the trenches midst our hakas and cheering. The other party did well, we could hear them on the opposite hill cheering, and hakaing as they went along.
Choose a synonym only when it preserves the intended meaning, tone, and grammar of the full sentence.
Haka means A group dance of New Zealand's Māori people featuring rhythmic chanting, vigorous facial and arm movements, and foot stamping. Traditionally a war dance, today it is also performed to welcome guests, as a mark of respect at occasions such as commemorations and funerals, as a challenge to opposing teams at sports events, and for artistic purposes..
The closest synonym depends on the sentence and intended sense.
The opposite depends on the specific sense.
After each of my retinue were presented to the chief, partaking of the honour of the ougi, or salutation, the hákà, or dance of welcome, was performed; this was commenced by our entertainers, who placed themselves in an extended line, in ranks four deep. This dance, to a stranger witnessing it for the first time, is calculated to excite the most alarming fears; […]
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