verse

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A single metrical line in a poetic composition; one line of poetry.
2. n. A division of a metrical composition, such as a stanza of a poem or hymn.
3. n. A poem.
4. n. Metrical or rhymed composition as distinct from prose; poetry.
5. n. The art or work of a poet.
6. n. A group of poems: read a book of satirical verse.
7. n. Metrical writing that lacks depth or artistic merit.
8. n. A particular type of metrical composition, such as blank verse or free verse.
9. n. One of the numbered subdivisions of a chapter in the Bible.
10. v. To versify or engage in versifying.
11. v. To familiarize by study or experience: He versed himself in philosophy.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. To turn; revolve, as in meditation.
2. n. In prosody: A succession of feet (colon or period) written or printed in one line; a line: as, a poem of three hundred verses; hence, a type of metrical composition, as represented by a metrical line; a meter. A verse may be catalectic, dimeter, trimeter, iambic, dactylic, rimed, unrimed, alliterative, etc.
3. n. A type of metrical composition, represented by a group of lines; a kind of stanza: as, Spencerian verse; hence, a stanza: as, the first verse of a (rimed) hymn.
4. n. A specimen of metrical composition; a piece of poetry; a poem.
5. n. Metrical composition in general; versification; hence, poetical composition; poetry, especially as involving metrical form: opposed to prose.
6. n. A succession of words written in one line; hence, a sentence, or part of a sentence, written, or fitted to be written, as one line; a Stich or stichos. It was a custom in ancient times to write prosaic as well as metrical books in lines of average length. (See colometry, stichometry.) This custom was continued especially in writing the poetical books of the Bible, which, though not metrical in form, are composed in balanced clauses, and in liturgical forms taken from or similar to these.
7. n. Hence— In liturgies, a sentence, or part of a sentence, usually from the Scriptures, especially from the Book of Psalms, said alternately by an officiant or leader and the choir or people: specifically, the sentence, clause, or phrase said by the officiant or leader, as distinguished from the response of the choir or congregation; a versicle. In the hour-offices a verse is especially a sentence following the responsory after a lesson. In the gradual the second sentence is called a verse, and also that following the alleluia. Also versus.
8. n. In church music, a passage or movement for a single voice or for soloists, as contrasted with chorus; also, a soloist who sings such a passage
9. n. A short division of a chapter in any book of Scripture, usually forming one sentence, or part of a long sentence or period. The present division of verses in the old Testament is inherited, with modifications, from the masoretic division of verses (pesū qīm), and has been used in Latin and other versions since 1528. The present division of verses in the New Testament was made by Robert Stephanus, on a horseback journey from Paris to Lyons, in an edition published in 1551. In English versions the verses were first marked in the Geneva Bible of 1560.
10. n. A similar division in any book.
11. To relate or express in verse; turn into verse or rime.
12. To make verses.
13. In heraldry, reversed or turned in a direction unusual to the bearing in question. Also renverse.

Wiktionary

1. n. A poetic form with regular meter and a fixed rhyme scheme.
2. n. Poetic form in general.
3. n. One of several similar units of a song, consisting of several lines, generally rhymed.
4. n. A specific fictional universe.
5. v. To educate about, to teach about.
6. v. To face someone in some kind of game, duel, or battle

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A line consisting of a certain number of metrical feet (see foot, n., 9) disposed according to metrical rules.
2. n. Metrical arrangement and language; that which is composed in metrical form; versification; poetry.
3. n. A short division of any composition.
4. n. A stanza; a stave.
5. n. One of the short divisions of the chapters in the Old and New Testaments.
6. n. A portion of an anthem to be performed by a single voice to each part.
7. n. A piece of poetry.
8. v. To tell in verse, or poetry.
9. v. To make verses; to versify.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. compose verses or put into verse
2. n. a piece of poetry
3. n. literature in metrical form
4. v. familiarize through thorough study or experience
5. n. a line of metrical text