A metrical foot consisting of an accented syllable followed by two unaccented syllables; the words “poetry” and “basketball” are both dactylic. Tennyson’s “The Charge of the Light Brigade” is written [..]

metrical foot, late 14c., from Greek dactylos, literally "finger" (also "toe"), which is of unknown origin; the metrical use (a long syllable followed by two short ones) is by anal [..]

A three-syllable foot consisting of a heavy stress and two light stresses. Examples of words in English that naturally constitute dactyls include strawberry, carefully, changeable, merrily, mannequin, [..]

A kind of metrical foot. A dactyl is a stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables: for example, "Canada," "holiday," "camouflage." (The name comes from the Gr [..]

A stressed syllable followed by two unstressed ones, as in FLUT-ter-ing

A metrical foot consisting of three syllables, in which the first is stressed and the last two are unstressed.

The dactylic meter is the opposite of the anaepestic. It consists of a series of single hard-stressed sounds followed by two soft-stressed sounds – “Just for a handful of silver he left us” (Robert Br [..]

(n) a metrical unit with stressed-unstressed-unstressed syllables(n) a finger or toe in human beings or corresponding body part in other vertebrates

The “smallest of pedants.” (Steele: The Tatler.)

literally a finger or fingerlike projection on an insect body part

A poetical foot of three syllables (— ? ?), one long followed by two short, or one accented followed by two unaccented.

dactylo-|lang=en

A dactyl is a foot of poetry made up of three syllables: one stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables. Dactyls often have a sing-song hypnotic effect on readers, and sound a little somet [..]

Prefix or suffix denoting the digits (fingers or toes), as in dactylitis (inflammation of a finger or toe).

A metrical foot of one strong stress and two weak.

A poetic foot or unit consisting of one stressed (or long) syllable followed by two unstressed (or short) syllables. Dactylic Hexameter