What is "crambo"

Crambo \Cram"bo\ (-b[-o]), n. [Cf. Cramp, a., difficult.]

1. A game in which one person gives a word, to which another finds a rhyme.

   I saw in one corner . . . a cluster of men and women, diverting themselves with a game at crambo. I heard several double rhymes . . . which raised a great deal of mirth.
   --Addison.

2. A word rhyming with another word.

   His similes in order set And every crambo he could get.
   --Swift.

   Dumb crambo, a game in which one party of players give a word which rhymes with another, which last to be guessed by the opposing party, who represent in dumb show what they think it to be.

n. 1 A guessing game in which players guess words that rhyme with a clue word, seeking a word that is kept secret or concealed. 2 A word rhyming with another word.

Crambo is a rhyming game which, according to Joseph Strutt, was played as early as the fourteenth century under the name of the ABC of Aristotle. It is also known as Capping the rhyme. The name may also be used to describe a doggerel poem which exhausts the possible rhymes with a particular word.

In the days of the Stuarts it was very popular, and is frequently mentioned in the writings of the time. Thus in William Congreve's play of 1695 Love for Love, i. 1, contains the passage,

"Get the Maids to Crambo in an Evening, and learn the knack of Rhyming."