scrim

noun

ˈskrim 

1

: a durable plain-woven usually cotton fabric for use in clothing, curtains, building, and industry

2

: a theater drop that appears opaque when a scene in front is lighted and transparent or translucent when a scene in back is lighted

3

: something likened to a theater scrim

Examples of scrim in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Instead of dotting the same black scrim, like pinholes in a two-dimensional theater backdrop, the stars were scattered through space at dramatically varying distances, a vast swarm of them filling every last corner of an even vaster, more numinous, and emphatically three-dimensional darkness. —Michael Pollan, The Atlantic, 26 Jan. 2026

Slow-attack tones emerge and are subsumed back within the haze, like single strands of a spiderweb zooming in and out of focus; the uppermost reaches are suffused in a delicate scrim of what sounds like electronic crickets. —Philip Sherburne, Pitchfork, 14 Jan. 2026

Large pieces of fabric—scrims, a banner, and Nelson’s American flag—lay flat under fluorescent lights. —Alex Abramovich, New Yorker, 22 Dec. 2025

But a couple of actual issues made it through the dense scrim of Trump obsession. —Chris Stirewalt, The Hill, 9 Dec. 2025

Word History

Etymology

origin unknown

First Known Use

1793, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for scrim

• brim
• clim
• dim
• grim
• gym
• him
• hymn
• im
• limb
• mim
• prim
• rim