in poetry, the similar sound, or cadence and termination of two words which end two verses, &c. Or rhyme is a similitude of sound between the last syllable or syllables of a verse, succeeding either immediately, or at a distance of two or three lines.

There is no rule in poetry, says Du Bos, whose observance costs so much trouble, and is productive of less beauties in verse, than that of rhyming. Rhyme frequently maims, and almost always enervates the sense of the discourse; for one bright thought which the passion of rhyming throws in our way by chance, is, without doubt, every day the cause of a hundred others that people would blush to make use of were it not for the richness or novelty of the rhyme with which these thoughts are attended.