Sonnet. n.s. [sonnet, French; sonetto, Italian.]

1. A short poem consisting of fourteen lines, of which the rhymes are adjusted by a particular rule. It is not very suitable to the English language, and has not been used by any man of eminence since Milton.

2. A small poem.

Let us into the city presently,

To sort some gentlemen well skill'd in musick;

I have a sonnet that will serve the turn. --Shakespeare.

Sonnetteer. n.s. [sonnetier, French; from sonnet.]

A small poet, in contempt.

Assist me, some extempore god of rhime; for I am sure I shall turn sonnetteer. --Shakespeare, Love's Labour's Lost.

There are as many kinds of gardening as of poetry: your makers of parterres and flower gardens are epigrammatists and sonnetteers in this art. --Spectator.

What woful stuff this madrigal would be,

In some starv'd hackney sonnetteer or me?

But let a lord once own the happy lines,

How the wit brightens! how the style refines! --Pope.