Verse

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ɜː(r)s

Partly from Old English vers; partly, from Old French vers; both, from Latin versus ("a line in writing, and in poetry a verse; (originally) row, furrow"), from vertō ("to turn around").

Full definition of verse

Noun

1. A poetic form with regular meter and a fixed rhyme scheme.
   Restoration literature is well known for its carefully constructed verse.
2. Poetic form in general.
   The restrictions of verse have been steadily relaxed over time.
3. One of several similar units of a song, consisting of several lines, generally rhymed.
   Note the shift in tone between the first verse and the second.
4. A small section of the Jewish or Christian Bible.

Derived terms

• blank verse
• free verse

Related terms

• versification
• versify

Verb

1. (obsolete) To compose verses.
• Sir Philip Sidney (1554-1586)It is not rhyming and versing that maketh a poet.
2. (transitive) To tell in verse, or poetry.
• William Shakespeare (1564-1616)playing on pipes of corn and versing love

Verb

1. to educate about, to teach about.
   He versed us in the finer points of category theory.
• 1918, W. B. Maxwell, The Mirror and the Lamp Chapter 22, Not unnaturally, “Auntie” took this communication in bad part....Next day she...tried to recover her ward by the hair of the head. Then, thwarted, the wretched creature went to the police for help; she was versed in the law, and had perhaps spared no pains to keep on good terms with the local constabulary.

Back-formation from versus, misconstrued as a third-person singular verb *verses.

Verb

1. (colloquial) To oppose, to be an opponent for, as in a game, contest or battle.

Anagrams

• serve, sever, veers