crambo
Americannoun
plural
cramboes-
a game in which one person or side must find a rhyme to a word or a line of verse given by another.
-
inferior rhyme.
noun
Etymology
Origin of crambo
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”
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
She says they have charming musical evenings every Sunday, and sometimes play dumb crambo!
From Love's Shadow by Leverson, Ada
The portraits on the sordid walls were very like the crambo in the minds of ordinary men—very like the motley pictures of the Famous hung up in your parlor, O my Public!
From Harper's New Monthly Magazine No. XVI.?September, 1851?Vol. III. by Various
Oh and we have musical evenings on Sundays; sometimes we play dumb crambo.
From Love's Shadow by Leverson, Ada
Nicholls, "cost £737 2s., poor Settle receiving £10 for his crambo verses."
From Old and New London Volume I by Thornbury, Walter
After it, the whole family played at 'dumb crambo.'
From The Two Sides of the Shield by Yonge, Charlotte Mary
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.