Also 1 fyrsian, fersian, uersian, 4 uersie. [f. VERSE sb., prob. formed afresh at different times.]
1. intr. To compose or make verses; to versify. Also with it.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Gram., xxxvii. (Z.), 218. Uersificor, ic fersiʓe [v.rr. uersiʓe, fyrsiʓe] oððe ic wyrce fers.
1393. Langl., P. Pl., C. XVIII. 109. For þer is nouthe non who so nymeþ hede, That can uersie [v.r. versifie] fayre, oþer formeliche endite.
1606. Chapman, Mons. D’Ol., IV. i. F iij b. Prettie little Witt, y’ faith; Can he verse?… I meane, has he a vaine Naturall?
1647. Ward, Simp. Cobler, 87. You verse it simply, what need have we of your thin Poetry.
1688. W. Scot, Hist. Scots, II. (1776), 73. Come on as many as you will, And for a wager, I’l verse with them still.
1787. in Currie, Burns’ Wks. (1800), II. 105. It sets na ony lawland cheel Like you to verse or rhyme.
1812. Combe, Syntax, Picturesque, I. 129. I’ll prose it here, I’ll verse it there, And picturesque it everywhere.
1856. Meredith, Shav. Shagpat (1909), 66. He began to verse extemporaneously in her ear.
2. trans. To tell in verse; to turn into verse; to write, recount or celebrate in verse.
1446. Lydg., Two Nightingale Poems, i. 108. This brid, of whom y haue to you rehersed, Whych in her song expired thus ande deyede, In latyn fonde y in a boke well versed.
1590. Shaks., Mids. N., II. i. 67. When thou … sate all day, Playing on pipes of Corne, and versing loue To amorous Phillida.
c. 1712. Prior, ‘Full oft doth Mat,’ 4. But Topaz his own Werke rehearseth; And Mat. mote praise what Topaz verseth.
1869. F. Halleck, Connecticut, xxxiv. He … versed the Psalms of David to the air Of Yankee-Doodle, for Thanksgiving Days.
1892. Stopford Brooke, Early Eng. Lit., I. 12. The wanderer who came into the hall to claim hospitality sang his stave of thanks, or versed for the chief in the high seat, who he was.
† 3. To accompany or bring with verses. Obs.–1
1602. Marston, Ant. & Mel., V. If that thou canst not give, goe hang thy selfe: Ile time the dead, or verse thee to the rope.
Hence Verging ppl. a.
1630. J. Taylor (Water P.), Pennilesse Pilgr., Wks. I. 125/1. My versing Muse craues some repose, And whilst she sleeps Ile spowt a little prose.
1665. J. Spencer, Vulg. Proph., 55. I should … throw out the vast rabble of rhyming, clinching, versing Prophets, as persons that tell the worst lies in the best maner.
