crambo
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English
[edit]
Etymology
[edit]- Perhaps related to cramp (“difficult”) (adjective).
- Perhaps from Latin crambe repetita (“cabbage served up again”).
Pronunciation
[edit]- Rhymes: -æmbəʊ
Noun
[edit]crambo (countable and uncountable, plural crambos or cramboes)
- (uncountable) A guessing game in which players guess words that rhyme with a clue word, seeking a word that is kept secret or concealed.
- 1711 May 23 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison; Richard Steele et al.], “SATURDAY, May 12, 1711”, in The Spectator, number 63; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume I, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC:
- I saw in one corner […] a cluster of men and women, diverting themselves with a game at crambo. I heard several double rhymes […] which raised a great deal of mirth.
- (countable) A word rhyming with another word.
- 1720, Jonathan Swift, To Stella, on transcribing his Poems:
- His similes in order set
And every crambo he could get.