Emily Dickinson Lexicon

CHA-RADE', n. [Said to be from the name of the inventor.]

A composition, in which the subject must be a word of two syllables, each forming a distinct word; and these syllables are to be concealed in an enigmatical description, first separately and then together. Example: My first, when a Frenchman is learning English, serves him to swear by. My second is either hay or corn. My whole is the delight of the age. Gar-rick. – Encyc.