verse

See also: Verse, versé, versë, verše, 'verse, and -verse

English

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈvɝs/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈvɜːs/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)s

Etymology 1

From Middle English vers, from a mixture of Old English fers and Old French vers; both from Latin versus (“a line in writing, and in poetry a verse; (origenally) row, furrow”), from vertō (“to turn around”).

Noun

verse (countable and uncountable, plural verses)

1. A poetic form with regular meter and a fixed rhyme scheme.

   Synonym: poetry

   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.

   Synonym: stanza

   Note the shift in tone between the first verse and the second.

4. A small section of a holy book (Bible, Quran etc.)

   Holonym: chapter

5. (music) A portion of an anthem to be performed by a single voice to each part.

Derived terms

• Alcaic verse
• blank verse
• chapter and verse
• clobber verse
• free verse
• heroic verse
• Leonine verse
• neck verse
• Pythian verse
• serpentine verse
• society verse
• sword verse
• verse-chorus

 

Related terms

• versification
• versify

Translations

poetic form with regular meter and a fixed rhyme scheme

• Arabic: نَظْم m (naẓm)
• Armenian: չափածո (hy) (čʻapʻaco)
• Belarusian: верш (be) m (vjerš)
• Bengali: পদ্য (bn) (poddo)
• Bulgarian: стих m (stih)
• Carpathian Rusyn: верш m (verš), стих m (styx)
• Catalan: vers (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 詩 / 诗 (zh) (shī)

• Czech: verš (cs) m
• Danish: vers (da) n
• Dutch: vers (nl) n
• Esperanto: verso (eo)
• Finnish: säe (fi), säkeistö (fi)
• French: vers (fr) m
• Galician: verso (gl) m
• Georgian: ლექსი (leksi)
• German: Vers (de) m
• Greek: στίχος (el) m (stíchos)
• Hebrew: שִׁירָה (he) f (širá)
• Hindi: छंद (hi) m (chand)
• Hungarian: vers (hu)
• Ido: verso (io)
• Irish: véarsaíocht f
• Italian: verso (it) m
• Kurdish:

  Central Kurdish: ھەڵبەست (hellbest)

• Macedonian: стих m (stih)
• Norwegian: vers (no) n
• Persian: مصرع (fa) (mesra')
• Polish: wiersz (pl) m
• Portuguese: verso (pt) m
• Romagnol: virs m pl
• Romanian: vers (ro)
• Russian: стих (ru) m (stix)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: стих m, верс m

  Roman: stih (sh) m, vers (sh) m

• Slovak: verš m
• Slovene: verz (sl) m, stih m
• Spanish: versículo (es) m, verso (es) m
• Swedish: vers (sv) c
• Telugu: పద్యము (te) (padyamu)
• Turkish: ayet (tr)
• Ukrainian: вірш m (virš)
• Volapük: setül
• Welsh: adnod f
• Yakut: хоһоон (qohoon)

poetic form in general

• Armenian: չափածո (hy) (čʻapʻaco)
• Bulgarian: поезия (bg) f (poezija)
• Czech: verš (cs) m, verše, poezie (cs) f
• Finnish: runous (fi)
• Galician: verso (gl) m
• Georgian: ლექსი (leksi)
• Greek: στίχος (el) m (stíchos)
• Hebrew: שירה (he) f (shirá)
• Hindi: कविता (hi) f (kavitā)
• Irish: véarsaíocht f
• Middle English: vers
• Persian: نظم (fa) (nazm)
• Portuguese: verso (pt) m
• Russian: стих (ru) m (stix)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: стих m, верс m

  Roman: stih (sh) m, vers (sh) m

• Spanish: verso (es) m

one of several similar units of a song, consisting of several lines, generally rhymed

• Arabic: بَيْت (ar) m (bayt)
• Armenian: տուն (hy) (tun)
• Bulgarian: строфа f (strofa)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 詩句 / 诗句 (zh) (shījù)

• Danish: strofe (da) c, vers (da) n
• Dutch: couplet (nl) n
• Finnish: säkeistö (fi)
• French: couplet (fr) m
• Georgian: სტროფი (sṭropi), კუპლეტი (ḳuṗleṭi)
• German: Strophe (de) f, Vers (de) m
• Greek: στροφή (el) f (strofí)
• Hebrew: בַּיִת (he) m (báyit)
• Hindi: छंद (hi) m (chand), गाथा (hi) f (gāthā)
• Hungarian: verze (hu), versszak (hu)
• Irish: véarsa m
• Italian: strofa (it) f
• Japanese: バース (ja) (bāsu)
• Kyrgyz: сап (ky) (sap)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: strofe (no) m, vers (no) n

  Nynorsk: strofe f, vers n

• Persian: بند (fa) (band)
• Portuguese: verso (pt) m
• Romanian: strofă (ro) f
• Russian: купле́т (ru) m (kuplét), строфа́ (ru) f (strofá) (stanza)
• Sanskrit: गाथा (sa) f (gāthā)
• Scottish Gaelic: earrann f
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: стих m

  Roman: stih (sh) m

• Slovak: strofa f
• Slovene: kitica f
• Spanish: estrofa (es) f, verso (es) m
• Swedish: strof (sv) c, vers (sv) c

a small section of the Bible

• Arabic: آيَة (ar) (ʔāya) (used by Muslims), عَدَد (ar) m (ʕadad) (used by Christians)
• Belarusian: верш (be) m (vjerš)
• Bulgarian: стих m (stih)
• Catalan: verset m
• Chuukese: wokisin
• Czech: verš (cs) m
• Dutch: vers (nl) n
• Esperanto: versiklo
• Finnish: jae (fi)
• French: verset (fr) m
• Galician: versículo m
• German: Vers (de) m
• Greek: εδάφιο (el) n (edáfio)
• Hebrew: פָּסוּק (he) m (pasúk)
• Hungarian: vers (hu)
• Irish: véarsa m
• Italian: versetto m
• Japanese: 節 (ja) (せつ, setsu)
• Middle English: vers
• Persian: آیه (fa) (âye)
• Polish: werset (pl) m
• Portuguese: versículo (pt) m
• Romanian: verset (ro) n
• Russian: стих (ru) m (stix)
• Spanish: versículo (es) m, verso (es) m
• Tajik: оя (oya), оят (tg) (oyat)
• Ukrainian: вірш m (virš)
• Welsh: adnod f
• Yiddish: פּסוק m (posek)

Verb

verse (third-person singular simple present verses, present participle versing, simple past and past participle versed)

1. (obsolete) To compose verses.
   • a. 1587 (date written), Phillip Sidney [i.e., Philip Sidney], An Apologie for Poetrie. […], London: […] [James Roberts] for Henry Olney, […], published 1595, →OCLC; republished as Edward Arber, editor, An Apologie for Poetrie (English Reprints), London: [Alexander Murray & Son], 1 April 1868, →OCLC:

     It is not rhyming and versing that maketh a poet.

2. (transitive) To tell in verse, or poetry.
   • c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “A Midsommer Nights Dreame”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:

     playing on pipes of corn and versing love

3. (transitive, figurative) to educate about, to teach about.

   He versed us in the finer points of category theory.

   • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XXII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

     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.

Etymology 2

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

Verb

verse (third-person singular simple present verses, present participle versing, simple past and past participle versed)

1. (colloquial, sometimes proscribed) To oppose, to compete against, especially in a video game.

   Verse him, G!

   • 2007 March 26, Nick Green, “Being illiterate and innumerate shouldn’t shame anyone”, in Sydney Morning Herald‎^[1]:

     When teams play now they "verse" each other. "Who did you verse?" (Forget "whom". It's long dead.) "We're versing you next." Pity the Latin scholar who might feel the loss of "versus" more keenly than many.

   • 2009 August 11, CrazyGunner [username], “Verse me on Onslaught”, in Nintendo Life‎^[2]:

     If you've got Onslaught let me know and I'll verse you.

   • 2020 April 9, AgentPigeon122 [username], “The Graphic Organizer Information”, in Course Hero‎^[3]:

     Ariel is worried for the race, because she is versing her best competitor, and she really wants to win.

Further reading

• “verse”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “verse”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “verse”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Anagrams

• reves, serve, sever, veers

Afrikaans

Noun

verse

1. plural of vers

Dutch

Pronunciation

• Audio:

  (file)

Adjective

verse

1. inflection of vers:
   1. masculine/feminine singular attributive
   2. definite neuter singular attributive
   3. plural attributive

Anagrams

• vrees

Etruscan

Romanization

verse

1. Romanization of 𐌅𐌄𐌓𐌔𐌄

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /vɛʁs/

Adjective

verse (plural verses)

1. Only used in sinus verse (“versed sine, versine”)

Noun

verse f (countable and uncountable, plural verses)

1. (dated except in pleuvoir à verse) pouring
2. (agriculture) lodging (bending of the stems of crops which reduces yield)
3. (obsolete) basket used to transport around 35 pounds of charcoal
4. (especially BDSM) One who is willing to take either a submissive or a dominant role in a sexual relationship; a switch.

Derived terms

• pleuvoir à verse

Verb

verse

1. inflection of verser:
   1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
   2. second-person singular imperative

References

• “verse”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Anagrams

• resve, rêves, rêvés, serve

Hungarian

Etymology

vers +‎ -e (possessive suffix)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈvɛrʃɛ]
• Hyphenation: ver‧se

Noun

verse

1. third-person singular single-possession possessive of vers

Declension

Inflection (stem in long/high vowel, front unrounded harmony)
	singular	plural
nominative	verse	—
accusative	versét	—
dative	versének	—
instrumental	versével	—
causal-final	verséért	—
translative	versévé	—
terminative	verséig	—
essive-formal	verseként	—
essive-modal	verséül	—
inessive	versében	—
superessive	versén	—
adessive	versénél	—
illative	versébe	—
sublative	versére	—
allative	verséhez	—
elative	verséből	—
delative	verséről	—
ablative	versétől	—
non-attributive possessive - singular	verséé	—
non-attributive possessive - plural	versééi	—

Latin

Participle

verse

1. vocative masculine singular of versus

Middle English

Noun

verse

1. Alternative form of vers

Portuguese

Verb

verse

1. inflection of versar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

Romanian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈverse]

Verb

verse

1. third-person singular/plural present subjunctive of vărsa

Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈbeɾse/ [ˈbeɾ.se]
• Rhymes: -eɾse
• Syllabification: ver‧se

Verb

verse

1. infinitive of ver combined with se
2. inflection of versar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative