| a rhyme either of two syllables of which the second is unstressed (double rhyme), as in motion, notion, or of three syllables of which the second and third are unstressed (triple rhyme), as in fortunate, importunate. |
| feminine rhyme n. A rhyme in which the final syllable is unstressed, as in feather/heather. |
feminine rhyme
in poetry, a rhyme involving two syllables (as in motion and ocean or willow and billow). The term feminine rhyme is also sometimes applied to triple rhymes, or rhymes involving three syllables (such as exciting and inviting). Robert Browning alternates feminine and masculine rhymes in his "Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister": Gr-r-r there go, my heart's abhorrence! Water your damned flower-pots, do!If hate killed men, Brother Lawrence,God's blood, would not mine kill you! What? your myrtle-bush wants trimming?Oh, that rose has prior claims- Needs its leaden vase filled brimming?Hell dry you up with flames!
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