doggerel

alternative obsolete dogrel · alternative archaic doggrel

1. not comparablecommunicationsOf a crude or irregular construction.

   True Wit has ſeen its best days long ago, / It ne're look'd up, ſince we were dipt in Show: / When Senſe in Dogrel Rimes and Clouds was loſt, / And Dulneſs flouriſh'd at the Actors coſt.

   1677 (date written), John Dryden, “Prologue”, in The Kind Keeper; or, Mr. Limberham: A Comedy: […], London: […] R[ichard] Bentley, and M[ary] Magnes, […], published 1680, →OCLC

   1 more example

   [I'll] haſten Og and Doeg to rehearſe, / Tvvo Fools that Crutch their Feeble Senſe on Verſe; / VVho by my Muſe to all ſucceeding times, / Shall live in ſpight of their ovvn Dogrell Rhimes.

   1682, [Nahum Tate; John Dryden], The Second Part of Absalom and Achitophel. A Poem, London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, page 13

plural doggerels · alternative obsolete dogrel · alternative archaic doggrel

1. countableuncountablecommunicationsA comic or humorous verse, usually irregular in measure.

   As he marched he sang a bit of doggerel in a high and quavering voice: / "Sing a song 'a vic'try, / A pocketful 'a bullets, / Five an' twenty dead men / Baked in a—pie."

   1895 October, Stephen Crane, chapter VIII, in The Red Badge of Courage: An Episode of the American Civil War, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC, page 86

   1 more example

   Taffy drew a long breath into his manly bosom, and kept it there as he read this characteristic French doggerel (for so he chose to call this touching little symphony in ère and ra).

   1894, George du Maurier, “Part Sixth”, in Trilby: A Novel, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, →OCLC, page 302

2. broadlycountableuncountableAny writing of crude composition.

   It is very rare to find good, personal analysis of events that does not degenerate into chest-beating, pettiness, pomposity, or political doggeral ^([sic]).

   1977 December 17, Andrew R. Weiss, “Kudos For Cagan”, in Gay Community News, volume 5, number 24, page 4