rime

plural rimes

1. countableuncountableArchaic in the form rimes: originally, any frozen dew forming a white deposit on exposed surfaces; hoar frost (sense 1).

   And moonlight splendour of intensest rime, / With which frost paints the pines in winter time.

   1820 (date written), Percy Bysshe Shelley, “The Witch of Atlas”, in Mary W[ollstonecraft] Shelley, editor, Posthumous Poems of Percy Bysshe Shelley, London: […] [C. H. Reynell] for John and Henry L[eigh] Hunt, […], published 1824, →OCLC, stanza XLIV, page 43

   5 more examples

   In a Hoar-Froſt, that vvhich vve call a Rime, is a Multitude of Quadrangular Priſmes, exactly figured, but piled vvithout any Order, one over another.

   1701, Nehemiah Grew, “Of the Principles of Bodies”, in Cosmologia Sacra: Or A Discourse of the Universe as It is the Creature and Kingdom of God. […], London: […] W[illiam] Rogers, S[amuel] Smith, and B[enjamin] Walford: […], →OCLC, 1st book, paragraph 33, page 16

   Sylphs! if vvith morn deſtructive Eurus ſprings, / O, claſp the Harebel vvith your velvet vvings; / Screen vvith thick leaves the Jaſmine as it blovvs, / And ſhake the vvhite rime from the ſhuddering Roſe; […]

   1791, [Erasmus Darwin], “Canto IV”, in The Botanic Garden; a Poem, in Two Parts. […], London: J[oseph] Johnson, […], →OCLC, part I (The Economy of Vegetation), page 204, lines 523–526

   The night had been heavy and lowering: but towards the morning it had changed to a slight frost: and the ground and the trees were now covered with rime.

   1821 September–October, [Thomas De Quincey], “[Part I.] Preliminary Confessions.”, in Confessions of an English Opium-Eater, 2nd edition, London: […] [J. Moyes] for Taylor and Hessey, […], published 1823, →OCLC, page 71

   But there are accents sweeter far / When Love leaps down our evening star, / Holds back the blighting wings of Time, / Melts with his breath the crusty rime, […]

   1846, Walter Savage Landor, “[Miscellaneous.] [Poem] CCXX.”, in The Works of Walter Savage Landor. […], volume II, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 656, column 1

   The raw rimes were not so pernicious as in the hollows, and the frosts were scarcely so severe.

   1883 March, Thomas Hardy, “The Three Strangers”, in Wessex Tales: Strange, Lively, and Commonplace […], volume I, London; New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., published 1888, →OCLC, page 5

2. countablefigurativelyuncountableA film or slimy coating.
3. countablefigurativelyuncountableWhite hair as an indication of old age.

   Tales that have the rime of age, / And chronicles of Eld.

   1839, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “Prelude”, in Voices of the Night, Cambridge, Mass.: […] John Owen, →OCLC, page xi

   1 more example

   The cold within him [Ebenezer Scrooge] froze his old features, nipped his pointed nose, shrivelled his cheek, stiffened his gait; made his eyes red, his thin lips blue; and spoke out shrewdly in his grating voice. A frosty rime was on his head, and on his eyebrows, and his wiry chin.

   1843 December 19, Charles Dickens, “Stave I. Marley’s Ghost.”, in A Christmas Carol. […], London: Chapman & Hall, […], →OCLC, page 3

4. countableuncountableclimatologyIce formed by the rapid freezing of cold water droplets of fog on to a cold surface.

   Synonyms: frost, hoar frost

5. countableuncountableclimatologyA coating or sheet of ice so formed.
6. UKcountableregionaluncountableA cold fog or mist.

   1 more example

   When Tommy and Elspeth reached the Den the mist lay so thick that they had to feel their way though it to the Ailie, where they found Gavinia alone and scared. […] "As sure as death," she said, "there was some living thing standing there; I couldna see it for the rime, but I heard it breathing hard."

   1896, J[ames] M[atthew] Barrie, “End of the Jacobite Rising”, in Sentimental Tommy: The Story of His Boyhood, London; Paris: Cassell and Company […], →OCLC, page 341

present singular third person rimes · participle present riming · participle past rimed · past rimed

1. transitiveTo cover (something) with rime (noun etymology 1, noun sense 1 or etymology 1, noun sense 3.1) or (loosely) hoar frost.

   [T]he hoar was a blanching on post and hedge, riming the dykes, […]

   1933 July, Lewis Grassic Gibbon [pseudonym; James Leslie Mitchell], “Stratus”, in Cloud Howe, London: Jarrolds Publishers […], →OCLC, page 193

   1 more example

   ―No more ſhall hoary Boreas, iſſuing forth / VVith Eurus, lead the tempeſts of the North; / Rime the pale Davvn, or veil'd in flaky ſhovvers / Chill the ſvveet boſoms of the ſmiling Hours.

   1791, [Erasmus Darwin], “Canto IV”, in The Botanic Garden; a Poem, in Two Parts. […], London: J[oseph] Johnson, […], →OCLC, part I (The Economy of Vegetation), page 186, lines 311–314

2. figurativelytransitiveTo cover (something) with a thin coating or film; to coat.

   Oh, London, London! […] the mornings silvery gray, and the multitudinous monuments rimed by years, thunder of hoofs in ways without end, and the silence of mighty parks—Bud lay awake in the nights to think of them.

   1907, Neil Munro, chapter XXXII, in Bud […], New York, N.Y.; London: Harper & Brothers, →OCLC, page 300

3. intransitiveSometimes followed by up: of a thing: to become covered with rime or (loosely) hoar frost.

plural rimes

1. archaiccountableuncountableArchaic spelling of rhyme (“word that rhymes with another”).

   Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote The Rime of the Ancient Mariner in 1797–1798.

   5 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

   [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

   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. countableuncountablehuman sciencesThe second part of a syllable, from the vowel on (as opposed to the onset).

present singular third person rimes · participle present riming · participle past rimed · past rimed

1. archaicArchaic spelling of rhyme.

   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

   VVill you Rime vpon't, / And vent it for a Mock'rie? Heere is one: / Tvvo Boyes, an Oldman (tvvice a Boy) a Lane, / Preſeru'd the Britaines, vvas the Romanes bane.

   1611 April (first recorded performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Cymbeline”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene v], page 393, column 1

   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

   “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

present singular third person rimes · participle present riming · participle past rimed · past rimed

1. ambitransitivearchaicFollowed by up: to count (something); to number, to reckon.

   Synonyms: enumerate

present singular third person rimes · participle present riming · participle past rimed · past rimed

1. Synonym of ream.
   1. transitiveTo enlarge (a hole), especially using a tool such as a reamer.
   2. transitiveTo remove debris from inside (something, such as a freshly bored hole or a pipe) using a tool.

present singular third person rimes · participle present riming · participle past rimed · past rimed

1. IrelandraretransitiveTo dye (wool or yarn) reddish-brown by boiling or soaking in water with alder twigs.

plural rimes

1. obsoletetransitiveA narrow aperture or opening; a chink, a crack, a fissure; a rent, a rip.First known use early 17th c.

   [T]hough birds have no Epiglottis, yet can they ſo contract the rime or chinck of their Larinx, as to prevent the admiſſion of vvet or dry ingeſted, […]

   1646, Thomas Browne, “Of the Passage of Meate and Drinke”, in Pseudodoxia Epidemica: […], London: […] T[homas] H[arper] for Edward Dod, […], →OCLC, 4th book, paragraph 10, page 198

   1 more example

   [T]he ſevvet of oxen […] is alſo good againſt the inflammation of the eares, the ſtupidity and dulneſſe of the teeth, the running of the eyes, the vlcers and rimes of the mouth, and ſtiffneſſe of the neck.

   1607, Conradus Gesnerus [i.e., Conrad Gessner]; Edward Topsell, “Of Cowes”, in The Historie of Foure-footed Beastes. […], London: […] William Iaggard, →OCLC, page 83

present singular third person rimes · participle present riming · participle past rimed · past rimed

1. intransitiveobsoleteraretransitiveFollowed by into: to probe, to pry.

   Our act was, with finger, and nail, and eye, to rime into every jot of it [a case]; and our words were—'I am sure there is something inside. If not, it would open sensibly.'

   1877, R[ichard] D[oddridge] Blackmore, “Hermetically Sealed”, in Erema: Or My Father’s Sin […], volume III, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC, page 55