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
Jamie Barton, CNN Money, 12 Oct. 2025
Boise State’s Albertsons Stadium will be switching the gridiron for the baseball diamond next summer, but this isn’t for your typical baseball game.
—Shaun Goodwin, Idaho Statesman, 10 Oct. 2025
Colorado State is moving to the Pac-12 next year, but its rivalry with Wyoming on the gridiron is going to continue.
—Joe Nguyen, Denver Post, 24 Sep. 2025
The production design team turns White’s state-of-the-art fortress of solitude, complete with in-house gridiron, spa, and a look that melds Southwestern chic decor with Gothic waking nightmare, into a gorgeous version of hell.
—David Fear, Rolling Stone, 19 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 20 Oct. 2025.
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gridiron
noun
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