unrhyme

English

Etymology

un- +‎ rhyme

Noun

unrhyme (plural unrhymes)

1. A line of verse that does not rhyme.
   • 2003, Elizabeth Gregory, The critical response to Marianne Moore:

     As in Emily Dickinson there is too a fastidious precision of thought where unrhymes fill the purpose better than rhymes

Verb

unrhyme (third-person singular simple present unrhymes, present participle unrhyming, simple past and past participle unrhymed)

1. To remove the rhyme or expected rhyme from.
   • 1938, Ford Madox Ford, The march of literature: from Confucius' day to our own, page 333:

     a class of hackwriters arose whose job was to unrhyme the verse chronicles of the trouvere and to render them in the common speech of the day

   • 1978, Richard Sharp, The poet's witness:

     He half-rhymes "one" and "groan," clearly unrhymes "still" with "days," and seems unconcerned that the second "Shiloh" has no rhyming mate.

   • 1992, Osbern Bokenham, A legend of holy women:

     "Unrhyming" — translating from verse to prose — while common in late medieval France, was relatively rare in England: coincidentally, the Gilte Legende unrhymes its verse sources