scrimmage

1 of 2

noun

scrim·mage ˈskri-mij

Synonyms of scrimmage next

: a minor battle : skirmish

: a confused fight : scuffle

: the interplay between two football teams that begins with the snap of the ball and continues until the ball is dead

: practice play (as in football or basketball) between two squads

scrimmage

2 of 2

verb

scrimmaged; scrimmaging

intransitive verb

: to take part in a scrimmage

transitive verb

: to play a scrimmage against

scrimmager noun

Examples of scrimmage in a Sentence

Noun The first play from scrimmage netted them a touchdown. the two players got into a scrimmage off the court and got suspended Verb Last weekend we scrimmaged against Bell High.

Recent Examples on the Web

Noun

There was little doubt about the 6-foot-10 Heide, particularly after Dutcher started him in the closed-door scrimmage against Arizona State. —

Mark Zeigler, San Diego Union-Tribune, 7 Nov. 2023 Three days after Philadelphia and the Clippers agreed to terms, Harden played in a scrimmage against coaches and some of the team’s younger players Thursday at the team’s Playa Vista practice facility. —

Austin Knoblauch, Los Angeles Times, 3 Nov. 2023 When Arkansas played its Red-White intrasquad scrimmage at Barnhill Arena on Oct. 4, Brazile didn’t dress out. —

Bob Holt, Arkansas Online, 25 Oct. 2023 Butler sat out most of SDSU’s first intrasquad scrimmage two weeks ago with a sore ankle but played 33 minutes Saturday, finishing with 20 points, four rebounds, four assists and three steals. —

Mark Zeigler, San Diego Union-Tribune, 21 Oct. 2023 The Oklahoma softball team held a series of intrasquad scrimmages last October, treating its home crowd to a barrage of home runs before winning its third consecutive Women’s College World Series title. —

Santul Nerkar, New York Times, 31 Aug. 2023 Five-star running back Justice Haynes missed a few practices two weeks ago, including the second scrimmage. —

Nick Alvarez | Nalvarez@al.com, al, 28 Aug. 2023 One likely solution: Letting fans into Dodger Stadium to watch one of the team’s intrasquad scrimmages next week. —

Jack Harris, Los Angeles Times, 29 Sep. 2023 Quinn uses Parsons in different places along the line of scrimmage to keep them guessing. —

Calvin Watkins, Dallas News, 15 Sep. 2023

Verb

That’s because nobody was willing to scrimmage a team ranked No. 8 in the nation in the MaxPreps preseason ratings. —

Greg Riddle, Dallas News, 22 Aug. 2023 Helix didn’t scrimmage 11-on-11, instead working in pods of about six players. —

Don Norcross, San Diego Union-Tribune, 28 Sep. 2023 Ward was filling in for Mississippi State transfer Reed Buys, who had been the primary second-team right guard throughout camp but did not scrimmage Saturday. —

Creg Stephenson | Cstephenson@al.com, al, 14 Aug. 2023 The possibility of a spring game being an inter-squad scrimmage has been bandied about for years, but has gained significant traction this offseason after Division II approved a proposal for its football teams to scrimmage four-year schools starting in the spring of 2024. —

oregonlive, 13 Apr. 2023 Lakota West scrimmages Elder on Friday then Winton Woods next week. —

James Weber, The Enquirer, 3 Aug. 2023 Within the first five minutes of scrimmaging, Cooper saw Amen and Ausar dominate defensively in ways that not even some of the NBA’s best could. —

Connor Letourneau, San Francisco Chronicle, 14 June 2023 The two teams scrimmaged last year at Tennessee, and Izzo and Barnes have been friends for decades. —

Chris Solari, Detroit Free Press, 30 Aug. 2023 Kuusinen first imagined playing in the United States after scrimmaging Team USA in 2017. —

Greg Levinsky, BostonGlobe.com, 20 July 2023 See More

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'scrimmage.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.