Definitions for virelays

• Definition
• Anagrams (418)

virelays vir·e·lay

Spelling: [vir-uh-ley]

IPA: /ˈvɪr əˌleɪ/

Virelays is a 8 letter English word. It's valid Scrabble word worth 13 points. It's valid Words with friends word worth 14 points.

You can make 418 anagrams from letters in virelays (aeilrsvy).

Definitions for virelays

noun

1. an old French form of short poem, composed of short lines running on two rhymes and having two opening lines recurring at intervals.
2. any of various similar or other forms of poem, as one consisting of stanzas made up of longer and shorter lines, the lines of each kind rhyming together in each stanza, and having the rhyme of the shorter lines of one stanza forming the rhyme of the longer lines of the next stanza.
3. a medieval song form providing a musical setting for a virelay but having a formal structure different from that of the poem.

Origin of virelays

1350-1400; Middle English Old French virelai, alteration (see lay⁴) of vireli, virli jingle used as the refrain of a song

Examples for virelays

The chevalier was singing a virelay which he accompanied by striking Rolande against the branches, then barren of foliage.

We find, however, two fair examples of the virelay in the poem of Anelida, viz.

A virelay is a poem in an unusual metre, of which examples are very rare.

This may be called a virelay in the English sense, and is possibly what Chaucer intended by that name.

The virelay seems to have been in vogue in earlier English poetry.