scrimmage
/ˈskrɪmɪdʒ
/noun
1A confused struggle or fight: there was a considerable scrimmage, with people anxious to obtain cabs...
- Different situations, and momentaneous scrimmages brought about this rivalry, and consequently led to many wars between the natives and settlers in the years to come.
- This exhibition was as different as possible from our normal scrimmages.
- And they were not able to make any scrimmages with any of our fighters in the city.
Synonyms
fight, battle, struggle, tussle, brawl, fracas, rumpus, melee, free-for-all, rough and tumble;
Irish, North American, & Australian donnybrook
Law, dated affray
informal scrap, dust-up, punch-up, set-to, shindy
British informal scrum
British informal, Football afters
North American informal rough house
2 [mass noun] American Football A sequence of play beginning with the placing of the ball on the ground with its longest axis at right angles to the goal line: Michigan was called for pass interference in the first play from scrimmage...
- Any kick from scrimmage must be made from behind the line to be legal.
- On a play from scrimmage, if an offensive player fumbles anywhere on the field during fourth down, only the fumbling player is permitted to recover and/or advance the ball.
- Later in the series, the next offense had a little bit better luck as the freshman running back gained 17 yards on the first play from scrimmage.
2.1 [count noun] chiefly American Football A session in which teams practise by playing a simulated game.Some online league play, customized team matches and plain scrimmages would definitely be a welcome addition to the game....
- Owners decided that coaches would fill the additional schedule time produced by the elimination of two preseason games with additional intrasquad scrimmages.
- After the rest of the drills, Coach broke them up into teams for scrimmages.
verb [no object] chiefly American Football
1Engage in a scrimmage: I recommended that we be able to scrimmage against other schools during the spring...
- Of course, it never helps to sprain an ankle halfway through by stepping on someone else's foot scrimmaging, and then continue to run on it…
- When she got there, the girls were already scrimmaging.
- We'll just be scrimmaging, and a few different drills, so I can see who you are and where I want to put you.
1.1 [with object] Put (the ball) into a scrimmage.Following a field goal, the non-scoring team may choose for play to resume either with a kickoff as above, or by scrimmaging the ball from its own 35-yard line.
Derivatives
scrimmager
- She plays the show-biz game like a true scrimmager, dodging, scrambling and tackling much bigger obstacles.
- Like the other prop, he must be a rock solid scrimmager.
- In scrimmage, each team had one centre scrimmager flanked by two side scrimmagers.
Origin
Late Middle English: alteration of dialect scrimish, variant of the noun skirmish.