crambo

[ kram-boh ]

noun

, plural cram·boes.

1. a game in which one person or side must find a rhyme to a word or a line of verse given by another.
2. inferior rhyme.

crambo

/ ˈkræmbəʊ /

noun

1. a word game in which one team says a rhyme or rhyming line for a word or line given by the other team

Word History and Origins

Origin of crambo¹

First recorded in 1600–10; earlier crambe < Latin crambē repetīta “cabbage reheated, re-served,” a phrase used in Juvenal's “Seventh Satire” (“Reheated cabbage kills teachers”) in reference to unimaginative writing, from Greek krámbē “cabbage”

Word History and Origins

Origin of crambo¹

C17: from earlier crambe, probably from Latin crambē repetīta cabbage repeated, hence an old story, a rhyming game, from Greek krambē

Example Sentences

So Blind Man's Buff was given up and something quieter tried—Dumb Crambo, I think.

From Project Gutenberg

If the Moslem must have tribute, make men your tribute-money, Send idle drones to tease them within their hives of honey, is the commonest of crambo, and Must go, like all the others, the proud Moor’s bed to sleep in— In all the rest they’re useless, and nowise worth the keeping, is reminiscent of the pantomime days of our youth.

From Project Gutenberg

Crambo, kram′bo, n. a game in which one gives a word to which another finds a rhyme: rime.—ns.

From Project Gutenberg

What do you say to Dumb Crambo?

From Project Gutenberg

Things look their most unexpected, masquerade as other things, get queer unintelligible allegoric meanings, leaving you to guess what it all means, a constant dumb crambo of trees, flowers, animals, houses, and moonlight.

From Project Gutenberg