Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

An eccentric ragtime dance, danced with the feet well apart and with a characteristic rise on the ball of the foot, followed by a drop upon the heel. The original form, owing to the positions assumed by the dancers, is offensively suggestive. Similar dances are the bunny hug and grizzly bear, so called in allusion to the movements and the positions assumed by the partners in dancing.