verse: Meaning and Definition of

verse

Pronunciation: (vûrs), [key]
— n., adj., v., versed, vers•ing.
—n.
  1. (not in technical use) a stanza.
  2. a succession of metrical feet written, printed, or orally composed as one line; one of the lines of a poem.
  3. a particular type of metrical line: a hexameter verse.
  4. a poem, or piece of poetry.
  5. metrical composition; poetry, esp. as involving metrical form.
  6. metrical writing distinguished from poetry because of its inferior quality: a writer of verse, not poetry.
  7. a particular type of metrical composition: elegiac verse.
  8. the collective poetry of an author, period, nation, etc.: Miltonian verse; American verse.
  9. one of the short conventional divisions of a chapter of the Bible.
    1. that part of a song following the introduction and preceding the chorus.
    2. a part of a song designed to be sung by a solo voice.
  10. a line of prose, esp. a sentence, or part of a sentence, written as one line.
  11. a subdivision in any literary work.
—adj.
  1. of, pertaining to, or written in verse: a verse play.
—v.i.
  1. versify.
—v.t.
  1. to express in verse.
Random House Unabridged Dictionary, Copyright © 1997, by Random House, Inc., on Infoplease.
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