anapaesticanapesticadj.n.

1602 T. Campion Obseruations Art Eng. Poesie 11 In the first, second, and fourth place we may vse a Spondee or Iambick and sometime a Tribrack or Dactile, but rarely an Anapestick foote.

1749 J. Mason Ess. Power of Numbers & Princ. Harmony 58 To make the whole Line purely Anapæstic, thus: ĭn thĕir trīplĕ Dĕgrēes; ănd thĕ Rēgiŏns, tŏ whīch.

1824 H. F. Cary tr. Aristophanes Birds i. vi. 60 I see thee now, sweet nightingale...Burst out the descant bold and free Of anapæstic minstrelsy.

1897 W. C. Jones Elements & Sci. of Eng. Versification i. 165 Anapestic measure is growing in favor year by year, and the tumbling meter of King James is one of the beautiful rhythms of modern verse.

1936 F. R. Leavis Revaluation iv. 112 Prior takes happily to those anapaestic, rocking-horse rhythms.

2018 N.Y. Times (Nexis) 27 Dec. (Final ed.) 12 He was a limner of limericks, a form that first seized hold of him at midcentury and refused to relinquish its anapestic grip until the end of his life.

1602 T. Campion Obseruations Art Eng. Poesie 36 For that cause the Dactil, Trybrack, and Anapestick are not greatly mist in our verses.

1749 J. Mason Ess. Power of Numbers & Princ. Harmony 58 The rapid Flow of Anapæstics, is..most contrary to the stately Movement of Iambics.

1800 J. Carey Lat. Prosody made Easy 221 In the dramatic Anapaestics, indeed, regular uniformity of line is wholly out of the question.

1962 F. Baker in Representative Verse of Charles Wesley p. xlvi Prior and Swift, to whom is generally assigned the chief merit for elevating anapaestics from their crudest and clumsiest form in the street-ballad.

2003 Compar. Lit. 55 159 In the long run, the upshot was free verse, and, before that, perhaps..the ‘tilted’ anapestics of Swinburne.