Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Sports A practice session or informal game, as between two units of the same team.
  • noun Play between the two teams from the time the ball is snapped until it is declared dead.
  • noun The line of scrimmage.
  • noun A rough-and-tumble struggle; a tussle.
  • noun A skirmish.
  • intransitive verb To engage in a scrimmage.
  • intransitive verb To play (another group of players) in a scrimmage.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A skirmish; a confused row or contest; a tussle.
  • noun Specifically, in foot-ball:
  • noun A confused, close struggle round the ball.
  • noun The act on the part of the two contesting teams of forming in opposing lines, and putting the ball in play.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Formerly, a skirmish; now, a general row or confused fight or struggle.
  • noun (Football) The struggle in the rush lines after the ball is put in play.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A rough fight.
  • noun In some team sports, especially soccer, a practice game which does not count on a team's record.
  • noun In American football or Canadian football, a play that begins with a snap from the center while opposing teams are on either side of a line of scrimmage.
  • verb To have, or be involved in, a scrimmage.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a noisy riotous fight
  • noun (American football) practice play between a football team's squads
  • verb practice playing (a sport)

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, skirmish, alteration of skirmisshe, scrimish; see skirmish.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

A corruption of skirmish.

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