Cheville

Quick meaning: Cheville is a noun meaning (poetry) A word or phrase whose only function is to make a sentence metrically balanced.

Meaning

(poetry) A word or phrase whose only function is to make a sentence metrically balanced.

Example Sentences

The practice of using chevilles was very common in old Irish poetry, and a bad practice it was; for many a good poem is quite spoiled by the constant and wearisome recurrence of these chevilles.

The genius of prose rejects the cheville no less emphatically than the laws of verse; and the cheville, I should perhaps explain to some of my readers, is any meaningless or very watered phrase employed to strike a balance in the sound.

Word Forms

• chevilles

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include catalectic, chevet, amphimacer, echelette, cadence, kyrielle.

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