1580s, from Latin amphibrachus, from Greek amphibrakhys, name for a foot consisting of a long syllable between two short, literally "short at both ends," from amphi- "on both sides" [..]

In classical poetry, a three-syllable poetic foot consisting of a light stress, heavy stress, and a light stress--short on both ends. Amphibrachs are quite rare in English, but they can be found in sp [..]

A metrical foot. The term means "short (brachys) on either side (amphi)," which perfectly describes the foot — a stressed syllable surrounded by two unstressed syllables. Some amph [..]

A metrical foot of three syllables: one weak, one strong, and one weak.

(n) a metrical unit with unstressed-stressed-unstressed syllables (e.g., `remember')

You won't see this guy much (he's shy), but an amphibrach is a metrical foot consisting of an unstressed syllable, followed by a stressed one, followed by an unstressed one: daDUMda. (Not to [..]