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Parts of a song or hymn recurring at intervals, as at the end of stanzas; also, a company of singers who join with the singer or choir in singer or choir in singing such parts.

To soothe by singing softly. The fragment of the childish hymn with which he sung and crooned himself asleep. Dickens.

To read aloud each line of (a psalm or hymn) before singing it, -- usually with off. [Colloq. New. Eng.] See Line, v. t.

Day of wrath; -- the name and beginning of a famous mediæval Latin hymn on the Last Judgment.

A piece of music of a mournful character, to accompany funeral rites; a funeral hymn. The raven croaked, and hollow shrieks of owls Sung dirges at her funeral. Ford.

In Christian worship: A hymn expressing praise and honor to God; a form of praise to God designed to be sung or chanted by the choir or the congregation. David breaks forth into these triumphant praises and doxologies. South.

A hymn. [Obs.] Chaucer.

A hymn. [Obs.] Chaucer.

The special communication of knowledge to the mind by God; inspiration. Hymns and psalms . . . are framed by meditation beforehand, or by prophetical illumination are inspired. Hooker.

ecially, in church music, a short passage played by the organist between the stanzas of a hymn, or in German chorals after each line.

To sound, as a bell; to knell. Shak. For a departed being's soul The death hymn peals, and the hollow bells knoll. Byron.

To read or repeat line by line; as, to line out a hymn. This custom of reading or lining, or, as it was frequently called "deaconing' the hymn or psalm in the churches, was brought about partly from necessity. N. D. Gould.

Of or pertaining to Marseilles, in France, or to its inhabitants. Marseillaise hymn, or The Marseillaise, the national anthem of France, popularly so called. It was composed in 1792, by Rouget de l'Isle, an officer then stationed at Strasburg. In Paris it was sung for the first time by the band of men who came from Mar…

ctual 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 li…

Of or pertaining to the sect of Methodists; as, Methodist hymns; a Methodist elder.

Attached to one's own country or nation. National anthem, a popular song or hymn which has become by general acceptance the recognized musical expression of the patriotic sentiment of a nation; as, "God save the King" is called the national anthem of England. -- National bank, the official common name of a class of ba…

A kind of hymn, or canticle, of mediæval origin, sung in honor of the Nativity of our Lord; a Christmas carol. Grove.

Pertaining to Orpheus; Orphean; as, Orphic hymns.

An ancient Greek hymn in honor of Apollo as a healing deity, and, later, a song addressed to other deities.

d in common or in participation. And purify unto himself a peculiar people. Titus ii. 14. Hymns . . . that Christianity hath peculiar unto itself. Hooker.