From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishscrimmagescrim‧mage /ˈskrɪmɪdʒ/ noun [countable] 1 informalFIGHT a fight2 American EnglishDS a practice game of football, basketball etc
Examples from the Corpus
scrimmage• Kirby handled the ball on five of the 49ers' first seven plays from scrimmage.• But there was a penalty flag back at the line of scrimmage.• Bruener wants to keep Haley at the line of scrimmage and will try to hook him back inside to do so.• They overpowered the Jets at the line of scrimmage, ushering Aska toward 136 rushing yards.• They will put eight men up near the line of scrimmage ready to take the run away.• Hearst is the kind of runner who just needs a crease to slip through the line of scrimmage.• Budanski staggers back to the line of scrimmage.• The Dodgers will hold their first intra-squad scrimmage on Sunday.Origin scrimmage (1400-1500) skirmish