virelay

V4I1R1E1L1A1Y4

A form of virelai — A medieval poetic form consisting of two or more three line units in each stanza, with the rhyme scheme AABAAB.

Scrabble 13
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Meanings

nounvirelay (plural virelays)

plural virelays

  1. alternativeAlternative spelling of virelai.

    Now making layes of loue and louers paine, Bransles, Ballads, virelayes, and verses vaine [...].

    1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto X”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC
    1 more example

    Methinks my life is a twice-written scroll Scrawled over on some boyish holiday With idle songs for pipe and virelay, Which do but mar the secret of the whole.

    1881, Oscar Wilde, Hélas!

Origin

From French.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

virelay. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/virelay

MLA

“virelay.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/virelay. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “virelay,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/virelay.

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