Definition of "rhyme"

rhyme¹

/ɹaɪm/

noun
countable and uncountable, plural rhymes
1. (countable, uncountable) Rhyming verse (poetic form)
  Quotations
  Libels are caſt againſt thee in the ſtreete, / Ballads and rimes made of thy ouerthrovv.
  1594 (first publication), Christopher Marlow[e], The Trovblesome Raigne and Lamentable Death of Edvvard the Second, King of England: […], London: […] [Eliot’s Court Press] for Henry Bell, […], published 1622, [Act II], signature [D4], recto
  Thou, thou, Lyſander, thou haſt giuen her rimes, / And interchang'd loue tokens vvith my childe: […]
  c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, A Midsommer Nights Dreame. […] (First Quarto), London: […] [Richard Bradock] for Thomas Fisher, […], published 1600, [Act I, scene i], signature A2, verso
  VVhen in the Chronicle of vvaſted time, / I ſee diſcriptions of the faireſt vvights, / And beautie making beautifull old rime, / In praiſe of Ladies dead, and louely Knights, […]
  1609, William Shakespeare, “Sonnet 106”, in Shake-speares Sonnets. […], London: By G[eorge] Eld for T[homas] T[horpe] and are to be sold by William Aspley, signature G3, recto
  I thought, if I could dravv my paines, / Through Rimes vexation, I ſhould them allay, / Griefe brought to numbers cannot be ſo fierce, / For, he tames it, that fetters it in verſe.
  a. 1631 (date written), J[ohn] Donne, “The Triple Foole”, in Poems, […] with Elegies on the Authors Death, London: […] M[iles] F[lesher] for Iohn Marriot, […], published 1633, page 204
2. A thought expressed in verse; a verse; a poem; a tale told in verse.
3. (countable) A word that rhymes with another.
  1. (countable, in particular) A word that rhymes with another, in that it is pronounced identically with the other word from the vowel in its stressed syllable to the end.
4. (uncountable) Rhyming: sameness of sound of part of some words.
  Quotations
  [M]ary I cannot ſhevv it in rime, I haue tried, I can finde out no rime to Ladie, but babie, an innocent rime: for ſcorne, horne, a hard rime: for ſchoole foole, a babling rime: very ominous endings, no, I vvas not borne vnder a riming plannet, nor i cannot vvooe in feſtiuall termes: […]
  1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, Much Adoe about Nothing. […], quarto edition, London: […] V[alentine] S[immes] for Andrew Wise, and William Aspley, published 1600, [Act V, scene ii], signature I, verso
  Sometimes a man knovvs a place determinate, vvithin the compaſſe vvhereof he is to ſeek: […] as a man ſhould run over the Alphabet, to ſtart a rime.
  1651, Thomas Hobbes, “Of the Consequence or Trayne of Imaginations”, in Leviathan, or The Matter, Forme, & Power of a Common-wealth Ecclesiasticall and Civill, London: […] [William Wilson] for Andrew Crooke, […], 1st part (Of Man), page 10
  [S]hould not all the world delight to honour this unfortunate and loyal follower of the Muses? May Apollo send him rimes hitherto undreamed of; […]
  1878, Robert Louis Stevenson, “Précy and the Marionettes”, in An Inland Voyage, London: C[harles] Kegan Paul & Co., […], page 232
5. (linguistics) The second part of a syllable, from the vowel on, as opposed to the onset.
6. (obsolete) Number.

rhyme²

/ɹaɪm/

verb
third-person singular simple present rhymes, present participle rhyming, simple past and past participle rhymed
1. (transitive, intransitive) To compose or treat in verse; versify.
  Quotations
  Ha, ha, hovv vildely doth this Cynicke rime?
  1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act IV, scene ii], page 125, column 2
  How Panurge and the rest rim'd with Poetick Fury [chapter title]
  1653, François Rabelais, Thomas Urquhart and Peter Anthony Motteux, transl., chapter XLVII, in The Works of Francis Rabelais, Doctor in Physick: Containing Five Books of the Lives, Heroick Deeds, and Sayings of Gargantua, and His Sonne Pantagruel. […], London: […] [Thomas Ratcliffe and Edward Mottershead] for Richard Baddeley, […]; republished in volume II, London: […] Navarre Society […], book the fifth, page 418
  There marched the bard and blockhead, side by side, / Who rhymed for hire, and patronized for pride.
  1742, [Alexander Pope], “Book the Fourth”, in The New Dunciad: As is[sic] It was Found in the Year 1741. […], Dublin: […] George Faulkner, lines 101-102
  “He was aye rimin’,” said Miss Newbigging, “about this bonny countryside and the dacent folk that bode in it.”
  1936 July, John Buchan, “Sanctuary”, in The Island of Sheep, London: Hodder and Stoughton, published July 1938, part II (Laverlaw), pages 152–153
2. (intransitive, followed by with) Of a word, to be pronounced identically with another from the vowel in its stressed syllable to the end.
3. (reciprocal) Of two or more words, to be pronounced identically from the vowel in the stressed syllable of each to the end of each.
4. (intransitive, figurative) To somewhat resemble or correspond with.
  Quotations
  In addition, the look rhymes with but inverts the meaning of the first silent look he gets instead of words when he asks Lucien in the photo shop if he remembers him, and Lucien shrugs his shoulders in denial.
  2010, Tony Pipolo, Robert Bresson: A Passion for Film
5. (transitive, obsolete) To number; count; reckon.

Definition of "rhyme"

rhyme1

noun

Quotations

Quotations

rhyme2

verb

Quotations

Quotations

rhyme¹

rhyme²