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  1. clerihew love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. A humorous verse, usually consisting of two unmatched rhyming couplets, about a person whose name generally serves as one of the rhymes.

Wiktionary

  1. n. A rhyme of four lines, usually regarding a person mentioned in the first line.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. a witty satiric verse containing two rhymed couplets and mentioning a famous person.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. a witty satiric verse containing two rhymed couplets and mentioning a famous person

Etymologies

  1. Named after Edmund Clerihew Bentley (Wiktionary)
  2. After Edmund Clerihew Bentley (1875-1956), British writer. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

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hypernyms (2)

Words that are more generic or abstract

  1. rhyme
  1. verse

tags (3)

Free-form, user-generated categorization

  1. poems
  1. poetry
  1. ccvcvcvc

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Lists

These user-created lists contain the word ‘clerihew’.

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Comments

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  • johnmperry Here the TV says Reeko or Rick-o:

    Riccardo Ricco
    was fingered by a medico
    turned out he was dealing
    while most of his team were only wheeling Jul 19, 2008

  • yarb Shevek: not a strict clerihew since the first line is more than just name, but excusable since extra-funny. Jul 19, 2008

  • yarb Thanks bilby!

    Riccardo Riccò
    went faster than anyone else could go.
    He went faster than a moped
    but it turned out that he was dopéd. Jul 19, 2008

  • shevek I can't remember where I found it, but one of my favorite clerihews is

    Said Descartes "I extol
    Myself because I have a soul
    And beasts do not." Of course
    He had to put Des Cartes before the horse.
    Jul 19, 2008

  • bilby In Italian orthography, the accent shows where the stress falls. It appears in words where the stress is on the final syllable as this is a relatively 'unnatural' pattern for Italian. Still, there are certain tenses, eg. future and remote past, that fraught with finally-accented forms. So, yes, you are correct yarb. Ric-CO. Jul 19, 2008

  • yarb Can an Italian-speaker help me out please? I want to do a clerihew about Riccardo Riccò - am I right in thinking you stress the second syllable of his surname? I.e. it would rhyme with go rather than thicko? Jul 18, 2008

  • sionnach The two favorite clerihews in a Boston Globe contest.

    Tim Berners-Lee
    Invented HTTP
    Thus the World Wide Web was born
    For Nigerian Diplomats and porn.

    Bill Gates
    Has left the giant software company everyone hates.
    "Hey, Mistah?
    Are *you* gonna use Vista?" Jul 13, 2008

  • bemmie74 The M-W.com example sentence always cracks me up:
    My favorite of Edmund C. Bentley's clerihews is the following: "What I like about Clive
    Is that he is no longer alive.
    There is a great deal to be said
    For being dead." Dec 8, 2006

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‘clerihew’ has been looked up 2412 times, loved by 2 people, added to 27 lists, commented on 8 times, and has a Scrabble score of 16.