rondel n 1: a French verse form of 10 or 13 lines running on two rhymes; the opening phrase is repeated as the refrain of the second and third stanzas [syn: {rondeau}, {rondel}]
Rondel \Ron"del\, n. [Cf. {Rondeau}, {Roundel}.] 1. (Fort.) A small round tower erected at the foot of a bastion. [Obs.] [1913 Webster] 2. [F.] (a) Same as {Rondeau}. (b) Specifically, a particular form of rondeau containing fourteen lines in two rhymes, the refrain being a repetition of the first and second lines as the seventh and eighth, and again as the thirteenth and fourteenth. --E. W. Gosse. [1913 Webster]