From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Ghost dance \Ghost dance\
A religious dance of the North American Indians, participated
in by both sexes, and looked upon as a rite of invocation the
purpose of which is, through trance and vision, to bring the
dancer into communion with the unseen world and the spirits
of departed friends. The dance is the chief rite of the
{Ghost-dance}, or
{Messiah},
{religion}, which originated about 1890 in the doctrines of
the Piute Wovoka, the Indian Messiah, who taught that the
time was drawing near when the whole Indian race, the dead
with the living, should be reunited to live a life of
millennial happiness upon a regenerated earth. The
religion inculcates peace, righteousness, and work, and
holds that in good time, without warlike intervention, the
oppressive white rule will be removed by the higher
powers. The religion spread through a majority of the
western tribes of the United States, only in the case of
the Sioux, owing to local causes, leading to an outbreak.
[Webster 1913 Suppl.]
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Messiah \Mes*si"ah\, n. [Heb. m[=a]sh[imac]akh anointed, fr.
m[=a]shakh to anoint. Cf. {Messias}.]
The expected king and deliverer of the Hebrews; the Savior;
Christ.
[1913 Webster]
And told them the Messiah now was born. --Milton.
[1913 Webster]
From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]:
messiah
n 1: any expected deliverer [syn: {messiah}, {christ}]
2: Jesus Christ; considered by Christians to be the promised
deliverer
3: the awaited king of the Jews; the promised and expected
deliverer of the Jewish people
4: an oratorio composed by Handel in 1742
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