rime
/ɹaɪm/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.50 in modern English
6
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
1
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
Archaic in the form rimes: originally, any frozen dew forming a white deposit on exposed surfaces; hoar frost (sense 1).
Countable; Uncountable
noun
Ice formed by the rapid freezing of cold water droplets of fog on to a cold surface.
Countable; Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "In a Hoar-Froſt, that vvhich vve call a Rime, is a Multitude of Quadrangular Priſmes, exactly figured, but piled vvithout any Order, one over another."
- "Sylphs! if vvith morn deſtructive Eurus ſprings, / O, claſp the Harebel vvith your velvet vvings; / Screen vvith thick leaves the Jaſmine as it blovvs, / And ſhake the vvhite rime from the ſhuddering Roſe; […]"
- "And moonlight splendour of intensest rime, / With which frost paints the pines in winter time."
- "The night had been heavy and lowering: but towards the morning it had changed to a slight frost: and the ground and the trees were now covered with rime."
- "But there are accents sweeter far / When Love leaps down our evening star, / Holds back the blighting wings of Time, / Melts with his breath the crusty rime, […]"
- "The raw rimes were not so pernicious as in the hollows, and the frosts were scarcely so severe."
Etymology
The noun is derived from Middle English rim, rime, rym, ryme (“hoar frost; rime”), from Old English hrīm (“frost”), from Proto-West Germanic *hrīm (“rime; hoar frost”), from Proto-Germanic *hrīmą (North Germanic), *hrīmaz, *hrīmô (“rime; hoar frost”), probably from Proto-Indo-European *krey- (“to graze, touch; to streak”). The verb is derived from the noun. (The Old English equivalent, which did not survive into modern English, was behrīman.) Cognates * Middle Dutch riim, rijm, rīm (modern Dutch rijm (“hoar frost”)) * Old Danish *rim (only in rimfrost (“rime frost”); modern Danish rim (“hoar frost”)) * Old French rime, rimee (Middle French rime, rimee (“hoar frost”), Anglo-Norman rime, rimee (“hoar frost”)) * Old High German rīm (Middle High German rīm, Bavarian Reim (“dew; fog; light frost”) (dialectal)) * Old Norse hrím (Icelandic hrím, Norwegian rim (“hoar frost”)) * Old Saxon hrīm * Old Swedish *riim, *rim (only in rimfrost (“rime frost”); modern Swedish rim) * West Frisian rime, rym
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ɹaɪm/
- British English: /ɹaɪm/