Meaning of Roundelay | Babel Free

Definitions

1. A poem or song having a line or phrase repeated at regular intervals.
2. A dance in a circle.
3. Anything having a round form; a roundel.

Equivalents

Examples

“It fell upon a holly eve, Hey ho, hollidaye! When holly fathers wont to shrieve, Now gynneth this roundelay.”

“When merry milkmaids click the latch And rarely smells the new-mown hay, And the cock hath sung beneath the thatch Twice or thrice his roundelay, Twice or thrice his roundelay; Alone and warming his five wits, The white owl in the belfry sits.”

“"Ay, fool," said Tristram, "but 'tis eating dry To dance⟳ without a catch⟳, a roundelay To dance⟳ to." Then he twangled on his harp, And while he twangled little Dagonet stood Quiet as any water-sodden log⟳ Stay'd in the wandering warble of a brook;[…]”

“For then the little birds do sing⟳ their sweetest song, all joining in one joyous medley, whereof one may scarce tell⟳ one note⟳ from another, so multitudinous is that pretty roundelay;[…]”

“"Instead of being a rollicking bull-necked quarterstaff player with an eye for a wench and a good but untutored voice for roaring a roundelay, he's nothing but a weasel-faced herring-gutted wowser deliberately stuck in a cell to mislead travellers."”

CEFR level