crambo

American  

[kram-boh] / ˈkræm boʊ /

noun

plural

cramboes

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.

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crambo British  

/ ˈkræmbəʊ /

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

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Etymology

Origin of crambo

First recorded in 1600–10; earlier crambe < Latin crambē repetīta “cabbage reheated, re-served,” a phrase used in Juvenal's “Seventh Satire” (“Reheated cabbage kills teachers”) in reference to unimaginative writing, from Greek krámbē “cabbage”

Example Sentences

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

From Notes and Queries, Number 81, May 17, 1851 A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc by Bell, George

She says they have charming musical evenings every Sunday, and sometimes play dumb crambo!

From Love's Shadow by Leverson, Ada

Things look their most unexpected, masquerade as other things, get queer unintelligible allegoric meanings, leaving you to guess what it all means, a constant dumb crambo of trees, flowers, animals, houses, and moonlight.

From Limbo and Other Essays To which is now added Ariadne in Mantua by Lee, Vernon

The portraits on the sordid walls were very like the crambo in the minds of ordinary men—very like the motley pictures of the Famous hung up in your parlour, O my Public!

From The International Monthly, Volume 4, No. 2, September, 1851 by Various

"What! do you play at crambo with me?" said the Duke.

From Peveril of the Peak by Scott, Walter, Sir