> as lemmas

1876 J. Stainer & W. A. Barrett Dict. Musical Terms 276/2 Lyric, poetry or blank verse intended to be set to music and sung.

1927 Melody Maker Aug. 759/3 On July 8 Edgar Leslie, the prolific and most successful lyric writer in America, arrived in London.

1933 Punch 16 Aug. 180/3 The gramophone plunged fervently into that lyric called ‘I've Got a Date with an Angel’.

1934 C. Lambert Music Ho! iv. 272 The lowbrow poet—the type of writer who in the nineteenth century produced ‘Champagne Charlie’ and now produces revue lyrics.

1938 Oxf. Compan. Music 526/2 Another well-known poet constantly advertises himself in the British musical press as ‘Lyric Author…2,000 songs…not one failure to give great pleasure’.

1946 E. O'Neill Iceman Cometh ii. 150 They all join in a jeering chorus, rapping with knuckles or glasses on the table at the indicated spot in the lyric.

1958 Times 2 Aug. 7/4 Teenagers in Minneapolis, believing that the words of some ‘pop’ songs can encourage juvenile crime, have..‘opened a nation-wide “better lyrics” contest’.

1967 Listener 3 Aug. 130/1 Having introduced a new sound in the music, they saw that they had next to change the type of lyric.

1968 Listener 7 Nov. 610/1 According to Mick Farren, lyric-writer of the Deviants: ‘Pop music is..the last free medium.’

1972 Jazz & Blues Sept. 12/1 The banality of the lyrics.

1973 Listener 19 Apr. 522/1 The bo' weevil fugues..in blues lyrics.