Word.ws English Dictionary

doggerel

/ˈdɒɡəɹəl/

doggerel adjective: of a crude or irregular construction.

Adjective

doggerel (not comparable)

  1. Of a crude or irregular construction.
    • True Wit has ſeen its best days long ago, / It ne're look'd up, ſince we were dipt in Show: / When Senſe in Dogrel Rimes and Clouds was loſt, / And Dulneſs flouriſh'd at the Actors coſt.1677 (date written), John Dryden, “Prologue”, in The Kind Keeper; or, Mr. Limberham: A Comedy: […], London: […] R[ichard] Bentley, and M[ary] Magnes, […], published 1680, →OCLC
    • [I'll] haſten Og and Doeg to rehearſe, / Tvvo Fools that Crutch their Feeble Senſe on Verſe; / VVho by my Muſe to all ſucceeding times, / Shall live in ſpight of their ovvn Dogrell Rhimes.1682, [Nahum Tate; John Dryden], The Second Part of Absalom and Achitophel. A Poem, London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, page 13

Noun

doggerel (countable and uncountable, plural doggerels)

  1. A comic or humorous verse, usually irregular in measure.
    • Taffy drew a long breath into his manly bosom, and kept it there as he read this characteristic French doggerel (for so he chose to call this touching little symphony in ère and ra).1894, George du Maurier, “Part Sixth”, in Trilby: A Novel, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, →OCLC, page 302
    • As he marched he sang a bit of doggerel in a high and quavering voice: / "Sing a song 'a vic'try, / A pocketful 'a bullets, / Five an' twenty dead men / Baked in a—pie."1895 October, Stephen Crane, chapter VIII, in The Red Badge of Courage: An Episode of the American Civil War, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC, page 86
  2. (broadly) Any writing of crude composition.
    • It is very rare to find good, personal analysis of events that does not degenerate into chest-beating, pettiness, pomposity, or political doggeral ^([sic]).1977 December 17, Andrew R. Weiss, “Kudos For Cagan”, in Gay Community News, volume 5, number 24, page 4

doggerel meaning in Tamil, Bengali and Tagalog

doggerel in Tamil

நையாண்டிச் செய்யுள்

doggerel in Bengali

অমার্জিত, নিম্নমানের ছন্দহীন কবিতা

doggerel in Tagalog

comic or humorous verse
tulakis

Forms of doggerel

Adjective
alternative form (obsolete)dogrel
alternative form (archaic)doggrel
Noun
pluraldoggerels

Origin of doggerel

Probably from dog + -rel (“pejorative suffix”), akin to Dog Latin, late 14th c.

Words formed from doggerel

Questions about doggerel

What does doggerel mean?
Doggerel means of a crude or irregular construction.
What is doggerel in Tamil?
Doggerel in Tamil is நையாண்டிச் செய்யுள். See Doggerel meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is doggerel?
Doggerel can be an adjective or a noun.
How do you pronounce doggerel?
Doggerel is pronounced /ˈdɒɡəɹəl/ (UK).

Words near doggerel in the dictionary

  1. doggedness
  2. doggednesses
  3. dogger
  4. Dogger Bank
  5. Dogger Bank itch
  6. doggerel
  7. doggerelism
  8. doggerelist
  9. doggerelists
  10. doggerelize
  11. doggerelized

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: doggerel (page history and authors); doggerel (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); doggerel (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-doggerel.wav.

Cite this entry: “doggerel.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/doggerel. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.