Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A humorous verse consisting of two rhymed couplets in lines of irregular length, usually about a person whose name serves as one of the rhymes.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun a witty satiric verse containing two rhymed couplets and mentioning a famous person.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A rhyme of four lines, usually regarding a person mentioned in the first line.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a witty satiric verse containing two rhymed couplets and mentioning a famous person
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
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Examples
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Paul Griffin describes A Christmas Carol in a clerihew that has as its first quatrain:
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Paul Griffin describes A Christmas Carol in a clerihew that has as its first quatrain:
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Note that the Dennis family has moved out of the district on account of pressure brought to bear on their children, mostly in the schools and some of it from teachers and coaches. clerihew replied to comment from Marion Delgado
Freshwater: Yet another student and yet another cross - The Panda's Thumb 2010
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Is the leading of fashion. mike replied to comment from clerihew
Freshwater: Yet another student and yet another cross - The Panda's Thumb 2010
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J.R.R. Tolkien perfectly summed up the critical reaction to his fiction in a clerihew:
The little old daddy from Arizona superversive 2007
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But one thing is certain: counting hands is a medieval way to resolve that question, relying more on the concept of ‘might makes right’ than any rationality or logic. clerihew replied to comment from Chip Poirot
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I wrote this clerihew about a week ago, but hesitated in posting it.
Celebretoary Clerihew joshenglish 2007
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I was therefore already familiar with the categorical imperative, not least in Auden's rather fine clerihew:
Free Software and the Categorical Imperative glyn moody 2007
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July 10 is Clerihew Day, marking the birth date in 1875 of Edmund Clerihew Bentley, the British writer who invested a four-line rhyming verse, usually biographical in nature and resembling a limerick, that came to be known as a “clerihew.”
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Bentley composed the first clerihew about Sir Humphrey Davy, the chemist credited with isolating and naming aluminum.
bemmie74 commented on the word clerihew
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."
December 8, 2006
sionnach commented on the word clerihew
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?"
July 14, 2008
yarb commented on the word clerihew
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?
July 19, 2008
bilby commented on the word clerihew
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.
July 19, 2008
shevek commented on the word clerihew
I can't remember where I found it, but one of my favorite clerihews is
July 19, 2008
yarb commented on the word clerihew
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.
July 19, 2008
yarb commented on the word clerihew
Shevek: not a strict clerihew since the first line is more than just name, but excusable since extra-funny.
July 19, 2008
johnmperry commented on the word clerihew
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
July 19, 2008