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verse

 - 6 dictionary results

verse

  [vurs] ,noun, adjective, verb, versed, vers⋅ing.
Use verse in a Sentence
–noun
1. (not in technical use) a stanza.
2. a succession of metrical feet written, printed, or orally composed as one line; one of the lines of a poem.
3. a particular type of metrical line: a hexameter verse.
4. a poem, or piece of poetry.
5. metrical composition; poetry, esp. as involving metrical form.
6. metrical writing distinguished from poetry because of its inferior quality: a writer of verse, not poetry.
7. a particular type of metrical composition: elegiac verse.
8. the collective poetry of an author, period, nation, etc.: Miltonian verse; American verse.
9. one of the short conventional divisions of a chapter of the Bible.
10. Music.
a. that part of a song following the introduction and preceding the chorus.
b. a part of a song designed to be sung by a solo voice.
11. Rare. a line of prose, esp. a sentence, or part of a sentence, written as one line.
12. Rare. a subdivision in any literary work.
–adjective
13. of, pertaining to, or written in verse: a verse play.
–verb (used without object)
14. versify.
–verb (used with object)
15. to express in verse.
Origin:
bef. 900; ME vers(e), fers line of poetry, section of a psalm, OE fers < L versus a row, line (of poetry), lit., a turning, equiv. to vert(ere) to turn (ptp. versus) + -tus suffix of v. action, with dt > s; akin to -ward, worth 2

Synonyms:
1. Verse, stanza, strophe, stave are terms for a metrical grouping in poetic composition. Verse is often mistakenly used for stanza, but is properly only a single metrical line. A stanza is a succession of lines (verses) commonly bound together by a rhyme scheme, and usually forming one of a series of similar groups that constitute a poem: The four-line stanza is the one most frequently used in English. Strophe (originally the section of a Greek choral ode sung while the chorus was moving from right to left) is in English poetry practically equivalent to “section”; a strophe may be unrhymed or without strict form, but may be a stanza: Strophes are divisions of odes. Stave is a word (now seldom used) that means a stanza set to music or intended to be sung: a stave of a hymn; a stave of a drinking song. 4, 5, 6. See poetry.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To verse
verse 1   (vûrs)   
n.  

    1. A single metrical line in a poetic composition; one line of poetry.

    2. A division of a metrical composition, such as a stanza of a poem or hymn.

    3. A poem.

    4. The art or work of a poet.

    5. A group of poems: read a book of satirical verse.

  2. Metrical or rhymed composition as distinct from prose; poetry.

    1. The art or work of a poet.

    2. A group of poems: read a book of satirical verse.

  4. Metrical writing that lacks depth or artistic merit.

  5. A particular type of metrical composition, such as blank verse or free verse.

  6. One of the numbered subdivisions of a chapter in the Bible.

tr. & intr.v.   versed, vers·ing, vers·es
To versify or engage in versifying.

[Middle English vers, from Old English fers and from Old French vers, both from Latin versus, from past participle of vertere, to turn; see wer-2 in Indo-European roots.]
verse 2   (vûrs)   
tr.v.   versed, vers·ing, vers·es
To familiarize by study or experience: He versed himself in philosophy.

[Latin versāre; see versatile.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Cite This Source
Cultural Dictionary

verse

A kind of language made intentionally different from ordinary speech or prose. It usually employs devices such as meter and rhyme, though not always. Free verse, for example, has neither meter nor rhyme. Verse is usually considered a broader category than poetry, with the latter being reserved to mean verse that is serious and genuinely artistic.

The American Heritage® New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Cite This Source
Word Origin & History

verse 
c.1050, "line or section of a psalm or canticle," later "line of poetry" (c.1369), from Anglo-Fr. and O.Fr. vers, from L. versus "verse, line of writing," from PIE base *wer- "to turn, bend" (see versus). The metaphor is of plowing, of "turning" from one line to another (vertere = "to turn") as a plowman does. O.E. had fers, an early W.Gmc. borrowing directly from L. Meaning "metrical composition" is recorded from c.1300; sense of "part of a modern pop song" (as distinguished from the chorus) is attested from 1927. The English N.T. first divided fully into verses in the Geneva version (1551).
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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Idioms & Phrases

verse

see chapter and verse.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
Copyright © 1997. Published by Houghton Mifflin.
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