Vir"e*lay (?), n. [F. virelai; virer to turn + lai a song, a lay.]
An ancient French song, or short poem, wholly in two rhymes, and composed in short lines, with a refrain.
Of such matter made he many lays,
Songs, complains, roundels, virelayes.
Chaucer.
To which a lady sung a virelay.
Dryden.
⇒ "The virelay admitted only two rhymes, and, after employing one for some time, the poet was virer, or to turn, to the other."
Nares.
© Webster 1913.