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 Fear, Rolling Stone, 19 Sep. 2025
Just think of the gridiron characters who've hit the big screen over the years, giving us awesome cinematic moments in everything from screwball comedies to rousing biopics.
—Brian Truitt, USA Today, 19 Sep. 2025
Off the gridiron, the tight end has leveraged his fame into a lifestyle—and business—worthy of his star status.
—Abby Montanez, Robb Report, 19 Sep. 2025
It’s been a long journey for Mike Flynt to see his story go from the gridiron to the big screen.
—Brayden Garcia, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 17 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for gridiron
Cite this Entry
“Gridiron.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gridiron. Accessed 29 Sep. 2025.
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gridiron
noun
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