Dictionary.com
definitions
  • synonyms

crambo

[kram-boh]
noun, plural cram·boes.
  1. a game in which one person or side must find a rhyme to a word or a line of verse given by another.
  2. inferior rhyme.
Show More

Origin of crambo

1600–10; earlier crambe < Latin crambē repetīta phrase used by Juvenal in reference to unimaginative writing, literally, repeated (i.e., re-served) cabbage (< Greek krambē kind of cabbage)
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for crambo

Historical Examples

  • Crambo, kram′bo, n. a game in which one gives a word to which another finds a rhyme: rime.

    Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 1 of 4: A-D)

    Various

  • They talk and laugh together; and many a passion has had its birth in crambo, or the little box of amourettes.

  • He looked up for a moment, then gave a low whistle, and Crambo again set out on his rounds.

    Debit and Credit

    Gustav Freytag

  • Query, What is the meaning of crambo here, and is it to be met with elsewhere with a similar meaning?

  • Crabbe says, "Crambo is a play, in rhyming, in which he that repeats a word that was said before forfeits something."

British Dictionary definitions for crambo

crambo

noun
  1. a word game in which one team says a rhyme or rhyming line for a word or line given by the other team
Show More

Word Origin

C17: from earlier crambe, probably from Latin crambē repetīta cabbage repeated, hence an old story, a rhyming game, from Greek krambē
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012