Noun

(en-noun)

(heraldry) A sentence, phrase, or word, forming part of an heraldic achievement.

A sentence, phrase, or word, prefixed to an essay, discourse, chapter, canto, or the like, suggestive of its subject matter; a short, suggestive expression of a guiding principle; a maxim.

* (Joseph Addison) (1672-1719)

It was the motto of a bishop eminent for his piety and good works, ... Serve God, and be cheerful.

*{{quote-book, year=1922, author=(Ben Travers), title=(A Cuckoo in the Nest)

, chapter=1 citation , passage=“[…] the awfully hearty sort of Christmas cards that people do send to other people that they don't know at all well. You know. The kind that have mottoes like
  Here's rattling good luck and roaring good cheer, / With lashings of food and great hogsheads of beer. […]”}}

Noun

(en noun)

A musical composition with lyrics for voice or voices, performed by singing.

:

*{{quote-book, 1852, Mrs M.A. Thompson, chapter=The Tutor's Daughter, Graham's American Monthly Magazine of Literature, Art, and Fashion, page= 266

, passage=In the lightness of my heart I sang catches of songs as my horse gayly bore me along the well-remembered road.}}

*, chapter=5

, title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=He was thinking; but the glory of the song , the swell from the great organ, the clustered lights,

(label) Any musical composition.

Poetical composition; poetry; verse.

*(John Milton) (1608-1674)

*:This subject for heroic song .

*(John Dryden) (1631-1700)

*:The bard that first adorned our native tongue / Tuned to his British lyre this ancient song .

The act or art of singing.

A melodious sound made by a bird, insect, whale or other animal.

:

*(Nathaniel Hawthorne) (1804-1864)

*:That most ethereal of all sounds, the song of crickets.

Something that cost only a little; chiefly in for a song.

:

*(Benjamin Silliman) (1779–1864)

*:The soldier's pay is a song .

*

*:Thus the red damask curtains which now shut out the fog-laden, drizzling atmosphere of the Marylebone Road, had cost a mere song , and yet they might have been warranted to last another thirty years. A great bargain also had been the excellent Axminster carpet which covered the floor;.

An object of derision; a laughing stock.

*(Bible), (w) xxx. 9

*:And now am I their song , yea, I am their byword.