limerick

¹

[ lim-er-ik ]

noun

1. a kind of humorous verse of five lines, in which the first, second, and fifth lines rhyme with each other, and the third and fourth lines, which are shorter, form a rhymed couplet.

Limerick

²

[ lim-er-ik ]

noun

1. a county in N Munster, in the SW Republic of Ireland. 037 sq. mi. (2,686 sq. km).
2. its county seat: a seaport at the head of the Shannon estuary.
3. Angling. a fishhook having a sharp bend below the barb.

limerick

¹

/ ˈlɪmərɪk /

noun

1. a form of comic verse consisting of five anapaestic lines of which the first, second, and fifth have three metrical feet and rhyme together and the third and fourth have two metrical feet and rhyme together

Limerick

²

/ ˈlɪmərɪk /

noun

1. 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)
2. a port in SW Republic of Ireland, county town of Limerick, at the head of the Shannon estuary. Pop: 86 998 (2002)

limerick

1. A form of humorous five-line verse , such as:

   There once was a young man from Kew

   Who found a dead mouse in his stew.

   Said the waiter, “Don't shout

   Or wave it about,

   Or the rest will be wanting one too!”

Word History and Origins

Origin of limerick¹

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of limerick¹

C19: allegedly from will you come up to Limerick?, a refrain sung between nonsense verses at a party

Example Sentences

It’s probably okay, though, if you’ve just shared your limerick with friends on your Facebook page, on a little-seen blog, etc.

From Washington Post

The best of our limericks build to a punchline, a clever ending.

From Washington Post

Good luck — and be sure to keep your limerick chops warmed up for our annual Limerixicon contest in August.

From Washington Post

When we ask for a limerick, we want it to observe several rules.

From Washington Post

The Invitational is a humor contest, and so we want our limericks to be clever and funny.

From Washington Post

No alarms were triggered as she strolled out of the Giant supermarket in Limerick, Pennsylvania, and nobody thought otherwise.

From The Daily Beast

I was born in Limerick city but grew up in a small town in County Donegal—remote, windy, lots of rain.

From The Daily Beast

As a teenager in 1952, Lee became pregnant and was immediately sent to a convent in Roscrea, County Limerick.

From The Daily Beast

And I was trying to illustrate that with a more familiar example, which would be something like the repetition of a limerick.

From The Daily Beast

He was taken to a place in Ireland called Limerick where he suffered undue hardships as opposed to due hardships.

From The Daily Beast

Now the Waterford and Limerick were to lose, not only the Ennis line, but all their lines and their own identity as well.

From Project Gutenberg

On the 8th we ran our first running power train, and the Joy Bells rang in Limerick.

From Project Gutenberg

If only we could obtain running powers to Limerick and carry them back to Ireland, we should have secured some of the spoil.

From Project Gutenberg

Clanricarde himself dared not say a word, and Limerick threatened to be soon as bad as Galway.

From Project Gutenberg

He had spoiled the Sheriff of Limerick and threatened to cut his tongue out for complaining.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• ballad
• composition
• epic
• lyric
• poetry
• rhyme
• sonnet
• verse
• writing

More About Limerick

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.

Limericks in poetry

The first known uses of the word limerick referring to the poem come from the late 1800s. The name is said to have originated from a kind of party game in which people took turns making up a set of nonsense verses, after which everyone would sing the same refrain, “Will you come up to Limerick?” (Limerick here refers to the county of Limerick in Ireland.)

People were writing and reciting limericks before they were called limericks—at least since the 1700s. The AABBA rhyme scheme that is almost always used today was popularized by poet Edward Lear in his 1846 collection A Book of Nonsense. In most limericks, the third and fourth lines are a rhyming couplet (a two-line rhyming poem whose two lines are usually the same length). These lines are often shorter than the first, second, and fifth lines. (In technical terms, they should have two metrical feet in contrast to the other three lines, which should have three metrical feet.) Here’s a classic example of a limerick that uses this structure:

There once was a man from Nantucket (A)
Who kept all his cash in a bucket. (A)
But his daughter, named Nan, (B)
Ran away with a man (B)
And as for the bucket, Nantucket. (A)

Get it? Nantucket in the final line is a pun meant to be interpreted as Nan took it. It’s common in many limericks for the final rhyme to end with the same word as the first line.

Limericks’ humor usually comes from puns and other kinds of wordplay, or just plain silliness. (Of course, a lot of people use them as an opportunity to make dirty jokes.) Limericks usually follow the traditional pattern, which makes them easy to recite. But they’re usually composed just for fun, and so the form doesn’t need to be perfect. Still, the last line is almost always the punch line.

Did you know ... ?

Many nursery rhymes are actually limericks, or at least very similar in form. For example:

Hickory, dickory, dock
The mouse ran up the clock
The clock struck one,
And down he run
Hickory, dickory, dock!

What are real-life examples of limerick?

Limericks are most commonly used as a fun way to tell a silly joke, especially one based on wordplay.

<iframe loading="lazy" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/GG19g9oiF-w" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>

With math, Mrs Johnson could trace
Trajectories spinning through space,
Propelling Apollo
And missions to follow—
Work nobody now can erase.

— Limericking (@Limericking) February 25, 2020

#AuthorConfession day 1: Introduce your WIP with a limerick!

Peter hides himself away.
Damian looks toward a new day.
It all starts out great
But they fear tempting fate.
Will they come out of this okay?

— Jennifer Gitler (@JenniferGitler) March 1, 2020

 

What other words are related to limerick?

• poem
• rhyme
• funny
• humorous
• couplet
• stanza
• verse
• doggerel

Quiz yourself!

Which of the following choices is the traditional rhyme scheme for a limerick? 

A. AABBA
B. ABBAA
C. AAABB
D. ABABA