METRE • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Metre

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/mˈitər/ Listen

noun

Metre, Meter n.

1.

Rhythmical arrangement of syllables or words into verses, stanzas, strophes, etc.; poetical measure, depending on number, quantity, and accent of syllables; rhythm; measure; verse; also, any specific rhythmical arrangements; as, the Horatian meters; a dactylic meter. "The only strict antithesis to prose is meter."

2.

A poem. (Obs.)

3.

A measure of length, equal to 39.37 English inches, the standard of linear measure in the metric system of weights and measures. It was intended to be, and is very nearly, the ten millionth part of the distance from the equator to the north pole, as ascertained by actual measurement of an arc of a meridian. See Metric system, under Metric.

Common meter (Hymnol.), four iambic verses, or lines, making a stanza, the first and third having each four feet, and the second and fourth each three feet; usually indicated by the initials C. M.

Long meter (Hymnol.), iambic verses or lines of four feet each, four verses usually making a stanza; commonly indicated by the initials L. M.

Short meter (Hymnol.), iambic verses or lines, the first, second, and fourth having each three feet, and the third four feet. The stanza usually consists of four lines, but is sometimes doubled. Short meter is indicated by the initials S. M.

Metre n. See Meter.

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Etymology of 'Metre'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Metre" Quotes from Famous Books

... change of a single syllable is sufficient to make good English, good sense, and good metre of a passage which is otherwise defective in these three particulars. It retains the s in "labours," keeps the comma in its place, and provides that antecedent for "it," which was justly considered ...

— Notes and Queries, Number 74, March 29, 1851 • Various

... big badger) were numerous. One day we dug a two-metre hole, and next day found eight live ones. They have teeth one and ...

— Argentina From A British Point Of View • Various

... architecture not of Paris only, but of all France. The interior arrangement of the sovereign court of justice outdoes our prisons in all that is most hideous. The writer describing our manners and customs would shrink from the necessity of depicting the squalid corridor of about a metre in width, in which the witnesses wait in the Superior Criminal Court. As to the stove which warms the court itself, it would disgrace a cafe ...

— Scenes from a Courtesan's Life • Honore de Balzac

... of grammar, I needed no teacher except my mother. When I had conquered the first difficulties I took up Tennyson's Idyls of the King, and at last succeeded in translating two of these beautiful poems in the metre of the original. ...

— Uarda • Georg Ebers

... development. It is said that a Hebrew version of the Arthurian cycle was made as early as the thirteenth century, and at the end of the period we run across epic poems on Bible characters, composed in the Nibelungen metre, in imitation of old German legend lore ...

— Jewish Literature and Other Essays • Gustav Karpeles

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