dance to someone's tune

English

Verb

dance to someone's tune (third-person singular simple present dances to someone's tune, present participle dancing to someone's tune, simple past and past participle danced to someone's tune)

1. To do what someone demands or expects, do as told, defer to someone's wishes or demands, do someone's bidding.
   • 1995, M.K. Gupta, How To Remain Ever Happy, →ISBN:

     You simply become a puppet in the hands of others who will make you dance to their tune. In other words, you reduce yourself to a slave or beggar by mortgaging your happiness on the mercy of others.

   • 2011, God'spower E O Udjor, The Dance of Herodias Daughter: Revealing Satan’s Last Deception in the Church, →ISBN, page 51:

     Satan doesn't care whether they carry the bible; he doesn't care whether they say Jesus is Lord. That's not his problem; he has successfully used them to create a counterfeit church to confuse the populace. He knows they are already his and they dance to his tune ... their destiny is sealed.

   • 2012, E.V. Thompson, Dream Traders, →ISBN:

     If the other traders followed our example, relations between Britain and China would improve dramatically. Think about it the next time you go off in a huff because the Chinese won't dance to your tune.'

   • 2014, Bernadette Reynolds, Dance to Your Own Tune, →ISBN, page 1:

     We are on earth to dance to our own tune! We have to know who I the individual is.

Translations

to do what someone expects

• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 聽人支笛／听人支笛 (teng¹ jan⁴ zi¹ dek^6-2, literally “to listen to someone's flute”)

• Danish: danse efter nogens pibe
• Dutch: naar iemands pijpen dansen (nl)
• Finnish: tanssia jonkun pillin mukaan
• German: nach jemandes Pfeife tanzen
• Italian: ballare al ritmo dettato da qualcuno, farsi comandare a bacchetta da qualcuno
• Japanese: 誰かの言いなりになる (だれかのいいなりになる, dareka no iinari ni naru), ほいほい従う (ほいほいしたがう, hoihoi shitagau)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: danse etter noens pipe

• Persian: به ساز کسی رقصیدن (be sâze kasi raqsidan)
• Swedish: dansa efter någons pipa (sv)

References

• “dance to someone's tune”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.