skirmish

• scirmish

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

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈskɜːmɪʃ/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈskɝmɪʃ/
• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)mɪʃ
• Hyphenation: skir‧mish

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^[1], 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.

   • 1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 311, about the church at Pembridge:

     The walls are slitted with embrasures through which bowmen could fire, indicating that the belfry also served as a stronghold during border skirmishes.

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^[2]:

     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.

• See also Thesaurus:fight
• See also Thesaurus:dispute

• squirmish

• screen

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.