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verses - 3 dictionary results
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verse

  [vurs] ,noun, adjective, verb, versed, vers⋅ing.
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–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 verses
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.
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