Search the Dictionary

A popular kind of narrative poem, adapted for recitation or singing; as, the ballad of Chevy Chase; esp., a sentimental or romantic poem in short stanzas.

A seller or maker of ballads; a poetaster. Shak.

A form of French versification, sometimes imitated in English, in which three or four rhymes recur through three stanzas of eight or ten lines each, the stanzas concluding with a refrain, and the whole poem with an envoy.

A writer of ballads.

Ballad poems; the subject or style of ballads. "Base balladry is so beloved." Drayton.

See Balladry. [Obs.] Milton.

to pass without notice; to relieve the tedium or weariness of; to while away; to divert. Ballads . . . to beguile his incessant wayfaring. W. Irving.

A street seller of ballads and other broadsides. [Slang, Eng.]

postscript to a poem, essay, or book; -- also in the French from, l'envoi. The envoy of a ballad is the "sending" of it forth. Skeat.

A sort of love song or light impromptu ballad. [Obs.] Shak. The fancy, all of a class who exhibit and cultivate any peculiar taste or fancy; hence, especially, sporting characters taken collectively, or any specific class of them, as jockeys, gamblers, prize fighters, etc. At a great book sale in London, which had cong…

In Old English, a song; a strain; a canto or portion of a ballad; a passus. [Written also fitte, fytte, etc.] To play some pleasant fit. Spenser.

A book of extracts in prose or poetry; an anthology. They [ballads] began to be collected into little miscellanies under the name of garlands. Percy.

A club or company organized for singing glees, and (by extension) part songs, ballads, etc.

" As an adjective, suitable to, or resembling the production of, Grub Street. I 'd sooner ballads write, and grubstreet lays. Gap.

Blusteringly; arrogantly. [R.] And huffingly doth this bonny Scot ride. Old Ballad.

A light, humorous piece of writing, esp. in rhyme; a farce in verse; a ballad. [Obs.] A jig shall be clapped at, and every rhyme Praised and applauded. Beau. & Fl.

To rhyme or sound with a jingling effect. "Jingling street ballads." Macaulay.

An elegy or mournful ballad, or the like.

A song; a simple lyrical poem; a ballad. Spenser. Sir W. Scott.

A little cloud; a cloud. [Obs.] O light without nebule. Old Ballad.