Also 3 kyriel, 7 kiriele. [a. F. kyrielle, OF. (13th c.) kyriele; in med.L. kiriel, pl. kyrieles (Du Cange); So MHG. kiriel; shortened from kyrie eleison: see prec.]
† 1. = prec. 1. Obs.
[a. 1225. Ancr. R., 30. Her also siggeð ‘De profundis’ biuore þe Paternoster. Kiriel. Christel. Kiriel. Ibid., 36. Beateð on ower breoste … & siggeð … Kiriel. Christel. Kiriel.]
2. A long rigmarole.
1653. Urquhart, Rabelais, I. xxi. With him he mumbled all his Kiriele and dunsical breborions.
3. A kind of French poetry divided into little equal couplets and ending with the same word which serves for the refrain.
1887. Sat. Rev., 3 Dec., 770/1. Among the verse-forms…. The kyrielle, of which we have three specimens, is not a form at all, and ought to have been discarded.
