Definition of clerihew in English:
clerihew
noun ˈklɛrɪhjuːˈklɛrəˌhju
A short comic or nonsensical verse, typically in two rhyming couplets with lines of unequal length and referring to a famous person.
Example sentencesExamples
- Much of the lightest verse of Rochester or Buckingham has as sharp a wit as one of E. C. Bentley's clerihews.
- There are also some laughs in the chapter on clerihews.
- If you don't know what a ‘clerihew’ is, I will explain next week, with another example - perhaps about David Beckham.
- The literary form, the clerihew, was invented by a schoolboy, all about Sir Humphrey Davy who lived with the odium of having discovered sodium.
Origin
1920s: named after Edmund Clerihew Bentley (see Bentley, Edmund Clerihew), who invented it.
Definition of clerihew in US English:
clerihew
nounˈklɛrəˌhjuˈklerəˌhyo͞o
A short comic or nonsensical verse, typically in two rhyming couplets with lines of unequal length and referring to a famous person.
Example sentencesExamples
- If you don't know what a ‘clerihew’ is, I will explain next week, with another example - perhaps about David Beckham.
- There are also some laughs in the chapter on clerihews.
- Much of the lightest verse of Rochester or Buckingham has as sharp a wit as one of E. C. Bentley's clerihews.
- The literary form, the clerihew, was invented by a schoolboy, all about Sir Humphrey Davy who lived with the odium of having discovered sodium.
Origin
1920s: named after Edmund Clerihew Bentley (see Bentley, Edmund Clerihew), who invented it.