limerick

«limerick» in Mova's school dictionary: a short, funny poem of five lines, with lines 1, 2 and 5… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 2 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun (a limerick, limericks); proper noun (Limerick — a place)

meaning for a pupil

1) A limerick is a short, funny poem of five lines, with lines 1, 2 and 5 rhyming together and lines 3 and 4 rhyming together (AABBA). tree →

2) (place) Limerick is a city and county in Ireland. tree →

sense in the lessons

In English and poetry lessons, pupils read Edward Lear's limericks and write their own, often starting «There once was a…». They practise rhyme scheme (AABBA) and rhythm: longer lines 1, 2, 5 and shorter lines 3, 4. In geography, Limerick is a city on the River Shannon in Ireland. Phrases: «write a limerick», «a silly limerick», «rhyme scheme AABBA».

examples

• There once was a cat from Peru, / who dreamed he was eating a shoe. / He woke with a fright, / in the middle of the night, / and found that his dream had come true. tree →
• Edward Lear wrote many limericks. tree →
• A limerick has five lines. tree →
• The rhyme scheme of a limerick is AABBA. tree →
• Our class wrote limericks about our pets. tree →
• Limerick is a city in Ireland on the River Shannon. tree →

note

Small l for the poem, capital L for the city. Limericks are meant to be silly; some grown-up ones are rude, so school ones are chosen carefully. Count: 5 lines, 3 long and 2 short.

In the corpora

• A limerick is a funny five-line poem with the rhyme pattern AABBA and a bouncy rhythm.
• And in Limerick, Aoife, whose family has little money, is invited to a rich classmate's party at a fancy hotel.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «limerick» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.