gridiron
noun
Did you know?
Are you ready for some football... lingo? Excellent, and if your big game preparations involve firing up a griddle at a tailgate party, even better—American football shares linguistic ties with that form of cookery. One of the oldest senses of gridiron referred not to a football field but to a metal grate used for broiling food over an open fire. In Middle English, such a grating was called a gredil, a root that gave modern English both gridiron and griddle. How did gridiron become associated with football? That happened in the late 1800s, when early football fields were marked in a grid, not by the familiar parallel yard lines we know today. From high up in the stands, the lines made the playing fields look like cooking gridirons. You might remember this the next time your favorite player is hotdogging in the end zone.
Examples of gridiron in a Sentence
David Eckert, Austin American Statesman, 2 Mar. 2026
Carter can’t wait to rib his fellow gridiron greats.
—Richard Johnson, New York Daily News, 1 Mar. 2026
The two men at the forefront of the move to the highest level of NCAA Division I college athletics told their giddy and dancing gridiron student-athletes the historic news on Monday morning.
—Joe Davidson, Sacbee.com, 16 Feb. 2026
These are the streamer's best shows and movies celebrating gridiron glory.
—Ilana Gordon, Entertainment Weekly, 11 Feb. 2026
See All Example Sentences for gridiron
Cite this Entry
“Gridiron.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gridiron. Accessed 10 Mar. 2026.
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gridiron
noun
