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

Example Sentences

Recent Examples on the Web

What at first appears to be a roofless ruin seen through a scrim of lindens is a walled patio designed by Mr. Van Valkenburgh’s team. —James S. Russell, New York Times, 22 Oct. 2020

DeVita poses most of her sitters in front of a scrim, with a distinctive marbled design. —Mark Feeney, BostonGlobe.com, 8 Sep. 2022

Water puppet theater, in which the puppeteers stand behind a scrim, chest-deep in water, manipulating their charges along the pool’s surface, is one of Vietnam’s most charming forms of folk performance. —Hanya Yanagihara, Condé Nast Traveler, 10 Jan. 2022

Instead, Harry seems to be fully present, with no scrim between himself and the reader. —Vanessa Friedman, New York Times, 9 Jan. 2023

The genealogical tree that descends on a scrim between the first few scenes is a kind of holy record. —Naveen Kumar, Vulture, 2 Oct. 2022

But for the past two mornings, the morning light has reminded me of Los Angeles in October — soft, yellow-golden in color, clearly filtered through a scrim of something suspended in the air. —Tom Yulsman, Discover Magazine, 2 July 2014

Domestic labor in Latino neighborhoods is charted, men and women glimpsed with washing machines through a scrim of graffiti scrawled on the windows. —Christopher Knight, Los Angeles Times, 31 Oct. 2022

Writer-director Todd Field’s capture of the classical world is so true to life, and Blanchett’s inhabitation of it so convincing, that the border between Tár’s world and ours feels as thin as a scrim of light. —Michael Andor Brodeur, Washington Post, 14 Oct. 2022

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Word History

Etymology

origin unknown

First Known Use

1793, in the meaning defined at sense 1