rhyme

plural rhymes · alternative archaic rime · alternative obsolete rhime

1. countableuncountableRhyming verse (poetic form).

   Many editors say they don’t want stories written in rhyme these days.

   4 more examples

   Libels are caſt againſt thee in the ſtreete, / Ballads and rimes made of thy ouerthrovv.

   1594, Christopher Marlow[e], The Troublesome Raigne and Lamentable Death of Edward the Second, King of England: […], London: […] [Eliot’s Court Press] for Henry Bell, […], published 1622, →OCLC, [Act II], signature [D4], recto

   Thou, thou, Lyſander, thou haſt giuen her rimes, / And interchang'd loue tokens vvith my childe: […]

   c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, A Midsommer Nights Dreame. […] (First Quarto), London: […] [Richard Bradock] for Thomas Fisher, […], published 1600, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i], signature A2, verso

   VVhen in the Chronicle of vvaſted time, / I ſee diſcriptions of the faireſt vvights, / And beautie making beautifull old rime, / In praiſe of Ladies dead, and louely Knights, […]

   1609, William Shakespeare, “Sonnet 106”, in Shake-speares Sonnets. […], London: By G[eorge] Eld for T[homas] T[horpe] and are to be sold by William Aspley, →OCLC, signature G3, recto

   I thought, if I could dravv my paines, / Through Rimes vexation, I ſhould them allay, / Griefe brought to numbers cannot be ſo fierce, / For, he tames it, that fetters it in verſe.

   a. 1631 (date written), J[ohn] Donne, “The Triple Foole”, in Poems, […] with Elegies on the Authors Death, London: […] M[iles] F[lesher] for Iohn Marriot, […], published 1633, →OCLC, page 204

2. countableuncountableA thought expressed in verse; a verse; a poem; a tale told in verse.

   Tennyson’s rhymes

3. countableA word that rhymes with another.

   Norse poetry is littered with rhymes like “sól … sunnan”.

   1 more example

   Rap makes use of rhymes such as “money … honey” and “nope … dope”.

   1. countableA word that rhymes with another, in that it is pronounced identically with the other word from the vowel in its stressed syllable to the end.

      "Awake" is a rhyme for "lake".

4. uncountableRhyming: sameness of letters or sounds of part of some words.

   The poem exhibits a peculiar form of rhyme.

   3 more examples

   [M]ary I cannot ſhevv it in rime, I haue tried, I can finde out no rime to Ladie, but babie, an innocent rime: for ſcorne, horne, a hard rime: for ſchoole foole, a babling rime: very ominous endings, no, I vvas not borne vnder a riming plannet, nor i cannot vvooe in feſtiuall termes: […]

   1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, Much Adoe about Nothing. […], quarto edition, London: […] V[alentine] S[immes] for Andrew Wise, and William Aspley, published 1600, →OCLC, [Act V, scene ii], signature I, verso

   Sometimes a man knovvs a place determinate, vvithin the compaſſe vvhereof he is to ſeek: […] as a man ſhould run over the Alphabet, to ſtart a rime.

   1651, Thomas Hobbes, “Of the Consequence or Trayne of Imaginations”, in Leviathan, or The Matter, Forme, & Power of a Common-wealth Ecclesiasticall and Civill, London: […] [William Wilson] for Andrew Crooke, […], →OCLC, 1st part (Of Man), page 10

   [S]hould not all the world delight to honour this unfortunate and loyal follower of the Muses? May Apollo send him rimes hitherto undreamed of; […]

   1878, Robert Louis Stevenson, “Précy and the Marionettes”, in An Inland Voyage, London: C[harles] Kegan Paul & Co., […], →OCLC, page 232

5. countableuncountablehuman sciencesThe second part of a syllable, from the vowel on, as opposed to the onset.
6. countableinformaluncountableAfrican-American Vernacular; hip hop; African-American Vernacular; hip hopAn instance of rapping; a rapped verse; a line or couple lines of rapping; a hip hop song.

   I heard Drake's new rhyme last night.

7. broadlycountableinformaluncountableAfrican-American Vernacular; hip hop; always plural; African-American Vernacular; hip hop; always pluralA rapper's oeuvre, lyricism or skill.

   His rhymes are all weak.

8. countableobsoleteuncountableNumber.

present singular third person rhymes · participle present rhyming · participle past rhymed · past rhymed · alternative archaic rime · alternative obsolete rhime

1. ambitransitiveTo compose or treat in verse; versify.

   Ha, ha, hovv vildely doth this Cynicke rime?

   1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene ii], page 125, column 2

   3 more examples

   How Panurge and the rest rim'd with Poetick Fury [chapter title]

   1653, Francis Rabelais [i.e., François Rabelais], translated by [Thomas Urquhart, Peter Anthony Motteux], chapter XLVII, in The Works of Francis Rabelais, Doctor in Physick: Containing Five Books of the Lives, Heroick Deeds, and Sayings of Gargantua, and His Sonne Pantagruel. […], London: […] [Thomas Ratcliffe and Edward Mottershead] for Richard Baddeley, […], →OCLC; republished in volume II, London: […] Navarre Society […], [1948], →OCLC, 5th book, page 418

   There marched the bard and blockhead, side by side, / Who rhymed for hire, and patronized for pride.

   1742, [Alexander Pope], “Book the Fourth”, in The New Dunciad: As is^([sic]) It was Found in the Year 1741. […], Dublin: […] George Faulkner, →OCLC, lines 101-102

   “He was aye rimin’,” said Miss Newbigging, “about this bonny countryside and the dacent folk that bode in it.”

   1936 July, John Buchan, “Sanctuary”, in The Island of Sheep, London: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC, part II (Laverlaw), pages 152–153

2. transitiveTo place (a word or words) in such a way as to produce a rhyme or an approximation thereof.

   Now she's tainted by the syringe Try to rhyme a word with orange

   2009, Julian Casablancas, “Long Island Blues”, in Phrazes for the Young, Luxury Edition Deluxe Set bonus disc

3. intransitiveOf a word, to be pronounced identically with another from the vowel in its stressed syllable to the end.

   Creation rhymes with integration and station.

   1 more example

   India and windier rhyme with each other in non-rhotic accents.

4. reciprocalTo be pronounced identically from the vowel in the stressed syllable of each to the end of each.

   Mug and rug rhyme.

5. intransitiveusuallytextTo contain words that are pronounced identically to each other from the vowel in the stressed syllable to the end.

   I rewrote the story to make it rhyme.

6. figurativelyintransitiveTo somewhat resemble or correspond with.

   In addition, the look rhymes with but inverts the meaning of the first silent look he gets instead of words when he asks Lucien in the photo shop if he remembers him, and Lucien shrugs his shoulders in denial.

   2010, Tony Pipolo, Robert Bresson: A Passion for Film

7. obsoletetransitiveTo number; count; reckon.