crambo

American  

[kram-boh] / ˈkræm boʊ /

noun

• cramboes
  plural

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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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• cramboes
  plural

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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”

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

crambo

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

From Peveril of the Peak by Sir Walter Scott

He has written on his slate, 'Will you play crambo?'

From Miss Prudence A Story of Two Girls' Lives. by Jennie (Drinkwater) Conklin Maria

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

From Love's Shadow by Ada Leverson

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 parlor, O my Public!

From Harper's New Monthly Magazine No. XVI.?September, 1851?Vol. III. by Various

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 Vernon Lee

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