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A species of lyric poetry so composed as to contain a refrain or repetition which recurs according to a fixed law, and a limited number of rhymes recurring also by rule.

Specifically, a particular form of rondeau containing fourteen lines in two rhymes, the refrain being a repetition of the first and second lines as the seventh and eighth, and again as the thirteenth and fourteenth. E. W. Gosse.

as, to sit under a preacher; to sit under good preaching. -- To sit up, to rise from, or refrain from, a recumbent posture or from sleep; to sit with the body upright; as, to sit up late at night; also, to watch; as, to sit up with a sick person. "He that was dead sat up, and began to speak." Luke vii. 15.…

To refrain from inflicting harm; to use mercy or forbearance. He will not spare in the day of vengeance. Prov. vi. 34.

there none under the sun. Chaucer. His misery was such that none of the bystanders could refrain from weeping. Macaulay.

great delicacy. It now came to the time of Mr. Jones to give a toast . . . who could not refrain from mentioning his dear Sophia. Fielding.

The burden of a song; the chorus; the refrain. Dryden.

tly embodying a satire on some person or event, sung to a familiar air in couplets with a refrain; a street song; a topical song.

ent French song, or short poem, wholly in two rhymes, and composed in short lines, with a refrain. Of such matter made he many lays, Songs, complains, roundels, virelayes. Chaucer. To which a lady sung a virelay. Dryden.