poulter's measure
poulter's measure noun: a metre with alternate lines of 12 and 14 syllables.
Noun
poulter's measure (plural poulter's measures)
- A metre with alternate lines of 12 and 14 syllables.
- Good ladies, ye that have your pleasure in exile
Step in your foot, come take a place and mourn with me awhile.
And such as by their lords do set but little price,
Let them sit still, it skills them not what chance come on the dice.1547, Earl Surrey, Complaint on the absence of her lover being at sea.
- Good ladies, ye that have your pleasure in exile
Forms of poulter's measure
| plural | poulter's measures |
|---|
Origin of poulter's measure
Coined by George Gascoigne in 1576, because it was said that poulters gave 12 eggs for the first dozen and 14 if you bought a second dozen.
Questions about poulter's measure
- What does poulter's measure mean?
- Poulter's measure means a metre with alternate lines of 12 and 14 syllables.
- What part of speech is poulter's measure?
- Poulter's measure is a noun.
- What is the plural of poulter's measure?
- The plural of poulter's measure is poulter's measures.
Words near poulter's measure in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: poulter's measure (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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Cite this entry: “poulter's measure.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/poulter%27s_measure. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.