A.Word.A.Day--scrimmage
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scrimmage (SKRIM-ayg) noun
1. A rough struggle.
2. A practice game, often between two parts of the same team.
3. A tussle for the ball in games such as football, rugby, soccer, etc.
verb tr, intr.
To engage in a scrimmage.
[Middle English metathetic variant of skirmish.]
"I depict her, ah, how charming!
I portray myself alarming
Her by swearing I would `mount the deadly breach,'
Or engage in any scrimmage
For a glimpse of her sweet image,
Or her shadow, or her footprint on the beach."
Charles Stuart Calverley, On the Beach, Anthology of Light Verse, 1935.
This week's theme: words formed by metathesis or transposing letters.
X-Bonus
Every society honors its live conformists and its dead troublemakers.
-Mignon McLaughlin, author
