n
a type of short funny poem with five lines, the first two rhyming with the last, and the third with the fourth. They are very popular in Britain and are sometimes quite rude. Limericks first appeared in print in 1820 and were later made famous by Edward Lear in his Book of Nonsense (1846). Lear usually used the same word to end the first and last lines:
There was an Old Man of the Border,
Who lived in the utmost disorder;
He danced with the Cat,
And made tea in his Hat,
Which vexed all the folks on the Border.
Modern limericks use a different rhyme at the end:
There was a young lady of Crewe,
Who dreamed she was eating her shoe.
She woke in the night,
In a terrible fright,
And found it was perfectly true.