The New International Encyclopædia/Bouts-rimés

BOUTS-RIMÉS, bōō'rḗ'-mắ' (Fr., rhymed endings). A kind of verse, the making of which forms a social amusement. Some one of the party gives out the rhymes or endings of a stanza, and the others have to fill up the lines as they best may. Suppose the rhymes prescribed are wave, lie; brave, die; the following is one of the ways in which the lines might be completed:

Dark are the secrets of the gulfing Where, wrapped in death, so many heroes Yet glorious death's the guerdon of the And those who bravely live can bravely

wave, lie; brave, die.

Addison ridicules the amusement in the Spectator, No. 60.