a county in N Munster, in the SW Republic of Ireland. 037 sq. mi. (2,686 sq. km).
its county seat: a seaport at the head of the Shannon estuary.
Angling. a fishhook having a sharp bend below the barb.
a county of SW Republic of Ireland, in N Munster province: consists chiefly of an undulating plain with rich pasture and mountains in the south. County town: Limerick. Pop: 175 304 (2002). Area: 2686 sq km (1037 sq miles)
a port in SW Republic of Ireland, county town of Limerick, at the head of the Shannon estuary. Pop: 86 998 (2002)
What is a limerick? A limerick is a five-line poem that is often humorous. Limericks use the rhyme scheme AABBA, meaning that the first two lines rhyme with each other, and then the next (usually shorter) two lines rhyme with each other, and the last line rhymes with the first two lines. For example:
A limerick has five lines, not nine. Start by rhyming two lines real fine. Then rhyme another two. It’s pretty easy to do. Just don’t forget the punch line.
The limerick is a popular form of poetry that’s generally done just for fun, as opposed to being composed for high artistic value. Many children’s nursery rhymes are formatted as limericks. Limericks are also known for being used as a way to tell very raunchy jokes.1895–1900; after Limerick; allegedly from social gatherings where the group sang “Will you come up to Limerick?” after each set of verses, extemporized in turn by the members of the party
A limerick is a humorous form of poetry that rhymes and has five lines. Many limericks are dirty. When you study literature, you'll probably read some sonnets, sestinas, haiku, and plays written in verse: there might not be much attention given to limericks. That's because limericks are a more popular, non-literary form of poetry: they're mainly humorous and often sexual. A limerick has five lines and follows the rhyme scheme aabba, using what is called anapestic meter (which has to do with syllables). Many limericks involve a man from Nantucket, usually doing something unprintable with a bucket.
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Kraft-Walker also ran limerick competitions to advertise Vegemite.
From Salon • Jul. 10, 2023
If you’re bored of reading this newsletter, you could ask ChatGPT or Bing to summarize the rest of it for you, or to rewrite it as a jaunty limerick.
From New York Times • Mar. 30, 2023
"And it's a limerick poem - a five-line poem - which I've written on a pen pot with three crayons in to represent the pastel that Lowry used."
From BBC • Sep. 24, 2022
He asked the student to read a limerick about a monster-like machine that “munches up socks by the pair.”
From Seattle Times • Nov. 10, 2021
Maybe she will try writing again, nothing too ambitious, a fun poem in the limerick mode.
From "How the García Girls Lost Their Accents" by Julia Alvarez
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
