Meaning of clerihew | Babel Free

Definitions

1. A humorous rhyme of four lines with the rhyming scheme AABB, usually regarding a person mentioned in the first line.
2. Alternative letter-case form of clerihew.
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Equivalents

Examples

“CLERIHEW CONTEST. CNV announces a clerihew contest, with the best examples to be published in this newsletter.”

“He [Peter Warlock] was the writer of brilliant limericks and clerihews and had a fine line in barbed invective.”

“A clerihew must contain⟳ the subject's name⟳ in the first line, be four lines in length, consist⟳ of two sets of rhyming couplets, have⟳ third and fourth lines longer than the first and second, and take⟳ a whimsical rather than cynical view⟳ of its subject.”

“Among other clerihew writers one can find⟳ the name⟳ of J[ohn] R[onald] R[euel] Tolkien, the author of The Hobbit and the most famous at present⟳ trilogy The Lord of the Ring⟳[s] widely read⟳ and enjoyed by adults and children alike.”

Ministry of Education of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic

“This form⟳ was initiated by Edmund Clerihew Bentley who throughout his life kept churning out Clerihews, the name⟳ they ultimately became known by; he had published three collections under the name⟳ E. Clerihew.”

“Warner Allen's own⟳ creation, the wine merchant William Clerihew, had appeared in 'Tokay of the Comet Year', a short story published in 1930, and also in the book Mr. Clerihew: Wine Merchant three years later. […] The Clerihew name⟳ was a hat-tip to [Edmund Clerihew] Bentley, who had, long before, devised the humorous four-line verse form⟳ known as the clerihew.”

“This form⟳ was initiated by Edmund Clerihew Bentley who throughout his life kept churning out Clerihews, the name⟳ they ultimately became known by; he had published three collections under the name⟳ E. Clerihew.”

CEFR level