triolet

American  

[tree-uh-ley, trahy-uh-lit] / ˌtri əˈleɪ, ˈtraɪ ə lɪt /

noun

1. a short poem of fixed form, having a rhyme scheme of ab, aa, abab, and having the first line repeated as the fourth and seventh lines, and the second line repeated as the eighth.

---

triolet British  

/ ˈtriːəʊˌlɛt /

noun

1. a verse form of eight lines, having the first line repeated as the fourth and seventh and the second line as the eighth, rhyming a b a a a b a b

---

Etymology

Origin of triolet

1645–55; < French: literally, little trio

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

triolet

Deuce take it, Easy is the triolet, If you really learn to make it!

From The Book of Humorous Verse by Wells, Carolyn

I particularly remember G. K. C. suddenly looking out of the dining room window towards Buckingham Palace and announcing that he was now prepared "to write a disloyal triolet!"

From Gilbert Keith Chesterton by Ward, Maisie

Perhaps a bad triolet every six months, and a book of criticism on something thoroughly threadbare once in five years.

From The Path to Rome by Belloc, Hilaire

Wilde himself has left it on record that he "cannot imagine anyone with the smallest pretensions to culture preferring a dexterously turned triolet to a fine imaginative ballad."

From Oscar Wilde by Ingleby, Leonard Cresswell

Once a neat refrain you get, Easy is the triolet.

From The Book of Humorous Verse by Wells, Carolyn