mismetre

M3I1S1M3E1T1R1E1

A form of mismeter — To give the wrong meter to, as to a line of verse.

Scrabble 12

Meanings

verbmismetre (third-person singular simple present mismetres, present participle mismetring, simple past and past participle mismetred)

present singular third person mismetres · participle present mismetring · participle past mismetred · past mismetred

  1. alternativeAlternative form of mismeter.

    They neither maul nor mismetre his rhyme;

    1513, Virgil, translated by Gavin Douglas, Æneid
    2 more examples

    For this he quotes and mismetres a fragment Kallimachos.

    1891, Edward Augustus Freeman, Sir Arthur Evans, The History of Sicily from the Earliest Times, page 264

    From the evidence of other witnesses to alliterative texts copied by Thornton (as, for instance, by comparing the four dissimilar manuscripts of Awntyrs or the two each of Truelove and The Palement of Thre Ages) it can be seen that, although Thornton is a careful scribe and almost never mismetres a line into duple, alternating rhythms, he shows an eagerness to smooth out and add explanatory pleonasms by inserting fillers such as ful, frequently supplying full forms where an aphetic one was metrical, and altering the metrical pattern of the b-verses to make triple-beat 'anapaestic' lines.

    2003, Ruth Kennedy, Richard Spalding, Three Alliterative Saints' Hymns, page xxxvii

Rhymes & wordplay

Anagrams

Cite this entry
APA

mismetre. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/mismetre

MLA

“mismetre.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/mismetre. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “mismetre,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/mismetre.

Source: mismetre on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.