Definition of Roundelay

1. Noun. A song in which a line or phrase is repeated as the refrain.

Generic synonyms: Song, Vocal

Definition of Roundelay

1. n. See Rondeau, and Rondel.

Definition of Roundelay

1. Noun. (music) A poem or song having a line or phrase repeated at regular intervals. ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Definition of Roundelay

1. [n -LAYS]

Lexicographical Neighbors of Roundelay

roundaboutness
roundabouts
roundarm
roundball
rounded down
rounded off
rounded out
rounded up
rounded vowel
rounded vowels
roundedness
roundednesses
roundel
roundelay (current term)
roundelays
roundels
rounder
rounders
roundest
roundfish
roundfishes
roundheaded
roundheadedness
roundheel
roundheels
roundhouse
roundhouse kick
roundhouse kicks

Literary usage of Roundelay

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. Harper's New Monthly Magazine by Henry Mills Alden (1882)
"Sing, nil ye choruses and choirs That lift unto the love-tuned lyres The music of their magic wires, To May, to May a roundelay! I hear the gentle murmurs ..."

2. The Harvard Classics by Charles William Eliot (1910)
"75 PERIGOT AND WILLIE'S roundelay IT fell upon a holly eve, Hey ho, ... this roundelay. Sitting upon a hill so hye, Hey ho, the high hyll! ..."

3. The English Poets: Selections with Critical Introductions by Thomas Humphry Ward, Matthew Arnold (1880)
"MINSTREL'S roundelay. [From O sing unto my roundelay, O drop the briny tear with me, Dance no more at holy-day, Like a running river be. My love is dead, ..."

4. Menaphon: Camila's Alarm to Slumbering Euphues in His Melancholy Cell at by Robert Greene (1895)
"... out this roundelay. ... roundelay. Hen tender ewes brought home with euening Sunne Wend to their ..."

5. Standard English Poems: Spenser to Tennyson by Henry Spackman Pancoast (1899)
"... MINSTREL'S roundelay (From Aella, 1770) O sing unto my roundelay, O drop the briny tear with me, Dance no more at holy-day, Like a running river be. ..."

6. The Student-life of Germany: From the Unpublished Ms. of Dr. Cornelius by William Howitt, Dr Cornelius (1841)
"I must yet once more animate you; so then sing:— roundelay and barley-wine, Love we them for ever; ... roundelay and true grape wine, Love we them for ever. ..."

7. English Verse by William James Linton, Richard Henry Stoddard (1883)
"roundelay. O, sing unto my roundelay ! O drop the briny tear with me ! Dance no more on holiday ! Like a running river be! My Love is dead, ..."

8. The Masterpieces and the History of Literature: Analysis, Criticism by Julian Hawthorne, John Porter Lamberton, John Russell Young, Oliver Herbrand Gordon Leigh (1906)
"Judge not . If thou art a Christian, believe that he shall be judged by a Superior Power. To that Power only is he answerable." THE MINSTREL'S roundelay. ..."

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