Pl. ballerine (as It.); also -inas. [It., fem. of ballerino.] A female dancer, a ballet-girl.
1792. A. Young, Trav. France, 216. The ballarini, or female dancers, have the same fury of motion.
1815. Byron, in Moore, Life, 289. A row among our ballerinas.
1878. in Grove, Dict. Music, I. 131. The first professional ballerina of note … was Mlle. Lafontaine. Ibid., 132. These eminent ballerine.
