virelay
Americannoun
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an old French form of short poem, composed of short lines running on two rhymes and having two opening lines recurring at intervals.
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any of various similar or other forms of poem, as one consisting of stanzas made up of longer and shorter lines, the lines of each kind rhyming together in each stanza, and having the rhyme of the shorter lines of one stanza forming the rhyme of the longer lines of the next stanza.
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a medieval song form providing a musical setting for a virelay but having a formal structure different from that of the poem.
noun
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an old French verse form, rarely used in English, consisting of short lines arranged in stanzas having only two rhymes, and two opening lines recurring at intervals
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any of various similar forms
Etymology
Origin of virelay
1350–1400; Middle English < Old French virelai, alteration ( see lay 4) of vireli, virli jingle used as the refrain of a song
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
And then the band of flutes began to play, To which a lady sung a virelay: And still at every close she would repeat The burden of the song—"the daisy is so sweet."
From Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 427 Volume 17, New Series, March 6, 1852 by Robert Chambers
Then last of all haue ye a proportion to be vsed in the number of your staues, as to a caroll and a ballade, to a song, & a round, or virelay.
From The Arte of English Poesie by George Puttenham
Must I, thy Bard, grow old, Bent, with the temples frore, Not jocund be nor bold, To tune for folk in May Ballad and virelay?
From Collected Poems In Two Volumes, Vol. II by Austin Dobson
"Teach me another, then," said the young girl, returning the instrument to him; and Chaudoreille intoned a virelay on the great feats of Pepin the Short.
From The Barber of Paris by Charles Paul de Kock
Methinks my life is a twice-written scroll Scrawled over on some boyish holiday With idle songs for pipe and virelay, Which do but mar the secret of the whole.
From Charmides and Other Poems by Oscar Wilde
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
