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1.                 From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
                   
   
   
                   
                     
   Ballade \Bal*lade"\, n. [See Ballad, n.]
      A form of French versification, sometimes imitated in
      English, in which three or four rhymes recur through three
      stanzas of eight or ten lines each, the stanzas concluding
      with a refrain, and the whole poem with an envoy.
      [1913 Webster]