Library / English Dictionary

VERSE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

A piece of poetry

Synonyms:

rhyme; verse

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Hypernyms ("verse" is a kind of...):

poem; verse form (a composition written in metrical feet forming rhythmical lines)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "verse"):

clerihew (a witty satiric verse containing two rhymed couplets and mentioning a famous person)

doggerel; doggerel verse; jingle (a comic verse of irregular measure)

limerick (a humorous verse form of 5 anapestic lines with a rhyme scheme aabba)

Derivation:

verse; versify (compose verses or put into verse)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A line of metrical text

Synonyms:

verse; verse line

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Hypernyms ("verse" is a kind of...):

line (text consisting of a row of words written across a page or computer screen)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "verse"):

decasyllable (a verse line having ten syllables)

octosyllable (a verse line having eight syllables or a poem of octosyllabic lines)

octameter (a verse line having eight metrical feet)

hexameter (a verse line having six metrical feet)

pentameter (a verse line having five metrical feet)

tetrameter (a verse line having four metrical feet)

Adonic; Adonic line (a verse line with a dactyl followed by a spondee or trochee; supposedly used in laments by Adonis)

iambic (a verse line consisting of iambs)

Holonyms ("verse" is a part of...):

poem; verse form (a composition written in metrical feet forming rhythmical lines)

Derivation:

verse; versify (compose verses or put into verse)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Literature in metrical form

Synonyms:

poesy; poetry; verse

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Hypernyms ("verse" is a kind of...):

genre; literary genre; writing style (a style of expressing yourself in writing)

Domain member category:

elegise; elegize (compose an elegy)

sonnet (compose a sonnet)

sonnet (praise in a sonnet)

scan (conform to a metrical pattern)

darkling ((poetic) occurring in the dark or night)

stilly ((poetic) still or calm)

scrivened (copied in handwriting)

lyric (of or relating to a category of poetry that expresses emotion (often in a songlike way))

apace ((poetic, literary) quickly)

sweet; sweetly (in an affectionate or loving manner ('sweet' is sometimes a poetic or informal variant of 'sweetly'))

hush; still; stillness ((poetic) tranquil silence)

dolor; dolour ((poetry) painful grief)

Erin (an early name of Ireland that is now used in poetry)

lyric (write lyrics for (a song))

relyric (write new lyrics for (a song))

rhyme; rime (compose rhymes)

tag (supply (blank verse or prose) with rhymes)

alliterate (use alliteration as a form of poetry)

poetise; poetize; verse; versify (compose verses or put into verse)

metrify (compose in poetic meter)

spondaise; spondaize (make spondaic)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "verse"):

epos (a body of poetry that conveys the traditions of a society by treating some epic theme)

epic poetry; heroic poetry (poetry celebrating the deeds of some hero)

Derivation:

verse; versify (compose verses or put into verse)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Familiarize through thorough study or experience

Example:

She versed herself in Roman archeology

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Hypernyms (to "verse" is one way to...):

acquaint; familiarise; familiarize (make familiar or conversant with)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s somebody with something

Sense 2

Meaning:

Compose verses or put into verse

Example:

He versified the ancient saga

Synonyms:

poetise; poetize; verse; versify

Classified under:

Verbs of sewing, baking, painting, performing

Hypernyms (to "verse" is one way to...):

compose; indite; pen; write (produce a literary work)

Domain category:

poesy; poetry; verse (literature in metrical form)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "verse"):

metrify (compose in poetic meter)

spondaise; spondaize (make spondaic)

elegise; elegize (compose an elegy)

sonnet (compose a sonnet)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

verse (a piece of poetry)

verse (a line of metrical text)

verse (literature in metrical form)

Credits

 Context examples: 

Can you write verse?

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

There were scraps of verse.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Their verses abound very much in both of these, and usually contain either some exalted notions of friendship and benevolence or the praises of those who were victors in races and other bodily exercises.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

I knew it by the names and the initials, and in it there was one little verse that seemed to call me.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

A few jokes and snatches of humorous verse, sold to the New York weeklies, made existence barely possible for him.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

What time Miss Mills sat looking at the moon, murmuring verses—and recalling, I suppose, the ancient days when she and earth had anything in common.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

To me, by the length and the look of it, I should judge this to be a verse from one of the Psalms.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

A calm, subdued triumph, blent with a longing earnestness, marked his enunciation of the last glorious verses of that chapter.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

If one happens only to shut the door a little hard, she starts and wriggles like a young dab-chick in the water; and Benwick sits at her elbow, reading verses, or whispering to her, all day long.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

Seven of your thin little volumes are on my shelves; and there are two thicker volumes, the essays, which, you will pardon my saying, and I know not which is flattered more, fully equal your verse.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)