Scrimmage

//ˈskɹɪməd͡ʒ// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A rough fight.

    "get caught up in a scrimmage"

  2. 2
    a noisy riotous fight wordnet
  3. 3
    In some team sports, especially soccer, a practice game which does not count on a team's record. US

    "Merchandise sales surged. The spring scrimmage, usually a yawn of an afterthought at Colorado, was packed."

  4. 4
    (American football) practice play between a football team's squads wordnet
  5. 5
    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
  1. 1
    To have, or be involved in, a scrimmage.

    "We scrimmaged a few times and then settled into boring drills."

  2. 2
    practice playing (a sport) wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
meleeactionaerial combataffrayarmored combatbattle

Example

More examples

"Now that the line of scrimmage has been moved back to the 15-yard line, the extra point after touchdown is no longer a fait accompli."

Etymology

A corruption of skirmish.

Related phrases

defensive line of scrimmageoffensive line of scrimmageamerican footballcanadian football

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.