VERSE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does verse mean? 

• VERSE (noun)
  The noun VERSE has 3 senses:

1. literature in metrical form

2. a piece of poetry

3. a line of metrical text

  Familiarity information: VERSE used as a noun is uncommon.

• VERSE (verb)
  The verb VERSE has 2 senses:

1. compose verses or put into verse

2. familiarize through thorough study or experience

  Familiarity information: VERSE used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• VERSE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Literature in metrical form

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

poesy; poetry; verse

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

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

Domain member category:

rhyme; rime (compose rhymes)

sonnet (compose a sonnet)

sonnet (praise in a sonnet)

scan (conform to a metrical pattern)

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

elegise; elegize (compose an elegy)

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'))

metrify (compose in poetic meter)

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))

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)

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)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A piece of poetry

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

rhyme; verse

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"):

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

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

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

Derivation:

verse; versify (compose verses or put into verse)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A line of metrical text

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

verse; verse line

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"):

octameter (a verse line having eight metrical feet)

decasyllable (a verse line having ten syllables)

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

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)

• VERSE (verb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Compose verses or put into verse

Classified under:

Verbs of sewing, baking, painting, performing

Synonyms:

poetise; poetize; verse; versify

Context example:

He versified the ancient saga

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)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Familiarize through thorough study or experience

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Context example:

She versed herself in Roman archeology

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

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

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s somebody with something

 Context examples 

Martin recollected his blank-verse tragedy, and sent it instead.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

However, he wrote some verses on her, and very pretty they were.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

I made the music for Father, because he likes the verses.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Only think of those sweet verses—'To Miss —.' Dear me, how clever! Could it really be meant for me?

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

I am growing great in Latin verses, and neglect the laces of my boots.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

It is scarce likely, he said, that Sir Claude Latour should send me all the way across seas with nought more weighty than a psalm-verse.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Mama used to teach me to dance and sing, and to say verses.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

But let me observe that all histories are against you—all stories, prose and verse.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

Describe her verse, as the critics have described it, as sublimated and spiritual, and you have described her body.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

One side was blank, for it had been the last leaf; the other contained a verse or two of Revelation—these words among the rest, which struck sharply home upon my mind: Without are dogs and murderers.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)