skirmish

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English

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Middle English skirmish (as a verb), from Old French escarmouche (“skirmish”), from Italian scaramuccia, earlier schermugio. Doublet of escarmouche and Scaramouche.

Pronunciation

Noun

skirmish (plural skirmishes)

  1. (military) A brief battle between small groups, usually part of a longer or larger battle or war.
    • 1970 April 28, “Chen Pao Battle and Subsequent Threat Campaign”, in The Evolution of Soviet Policy in the Sino-Soviet Border Dispute‎, Directorate of Intelligence, published 2007, →OCLC, page 34:
      On 2 March, Chinese border guards with the help of regular PLA forces skillfully ambushed Strelnikov's unit on the ice near Chen Pao, killing him and 30 Soviets in the subsequent skirmish.
  2. (figuratively, by extension) Any minor dispute.
    Three people were arrested after a skirmish in a bar.
    • 1977 February 14, Joseph E. Galvin, “Under Fire”, in The New York Times‎:
      Fires which have heretofore been one‐alarm skirmishes are now multialarm small wars.
  3. A type of outdoor military style game using paintball or similar weapons.

Synonyms

Translations

Verb

skirmish (third-person singular simple present skirmishes, present participle skirmishing, simple past and past participle skirmished)

  1. To engage in a minor battle or dispute.
    • 1895 November, Rudyard Kipling, The Second Jungle Book, London, New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC:
      The deer and the pig and the nilghai were milling round and round in a circle of eight or ten miles radius, while the Eaters of Flesh skirmished round its edge.
    • 2019, Adrian Tchaikovsky, Children of Ruin, Macmillan, page 376:
      Other historians might also remark that […] they have persisted all this time, constantly wrestling and skirmishing and yet never destroying themselves.

Translations

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