scrim
/skɹɪm/
scrim noun: a kind of light cotton or linen fabric, often woven in openwork patterns, used for curtains, etc,.
Noun (1)
scrim (countable and uncountable, plural scrims)
- A kind of light cotton or linen fabric, often woven in openwork patterns, used for curtains, etc,.
- A large military scarf, usually camouflage coloured and used for concealment when not used as a scarf.
- A woven, nonwoven or knitted fabric composed of continuous strands of material used for reinforcing or strengthening membranes.
- A theater drop that appears opaque when a scene in front is lighted and transparent or translucent when a scene in back is lighted.
- Mummified mannequins dangling above the set, illuminated from within, were a heavy-handed touch, but the designer George Tsypin’s translucent scrims and painted drops beautifully conveyed the passage of sun-blasted days and bone-chilling nights on the edge of civilization.2007 January 22, Steve Smith, “In Austin, Echoes of a Distant War in an Opera’s American Premiere”, in New York Times
- A sheet of gauze etc. used to reduce the intensity of light.
- Thin canvas glued on the inside of panels to prevent shrinking, checking, etc.
Verb (1)
scrim (third-person singular simple present scrims, present participle scrimming, simple past and past participle scrimmed)
- To use a scrim.
Noun (2)
scrim (plural scrims)
- A practice match between one or more organized teams usually in preparation for a more competitive format, such as a tournament.
- As a team, the players decided to focus less on streaming (a major source of income) and more on in-house scrims, VOD review and practice, hoping to become a better team.2016, Blog of Legends, "The Gap hasn’t closed: Comparing the LCS and LCK at Worlds"
Verb (2)
scrim (third-person singular simple present scrims, present participle scrimming, simple past and past participle scrimmed)
- To participate in a scrim.
- Accusations of him drinking instead of scrimming with the team, not attending practices at all and playing guitar instead of scrimming surfaced.2016, The Inquirer, The EE Blog: EternalEnvy Accuses Former Team, Team Secret, of Delayed Payments and Monetary Indiscretion
Forms of scrim
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | scrims |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | scrims |
| present participle | scrimming |
| past participle | scrimmed |
| past | scrimmed |
Origin of scrim
Attested since the end of the 18th century. Origin unknown. In one of the earliest mentions, "The Statistical Account of Scotland", 1793, by John Sinclair, page 593, we read in a paragraph devoted to weavers: "Besides these, they are now much employed in working a thin kind of coarse linen called Silesias, vulgarly Scrims, whereof each piece is 27 or 30 inches broad".
From scrimmage.
Words that rhyme with scrim
Questions about scrim
- What does scrim mean?
- Scrim means a kind of light cotton or linen fabric, often woven in openwork patterns, used for curtains, etc,.
- What part of speech is scrim?
- Scrim can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce scrim?
- Scrim is pronounced /skɹɪm/.
- What is the plural of scrim?
- The plural of scrim is scrims.
Words near scrim in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: scrim (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-scrim.wav.
Cite this entry: “scrim.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/scrim. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.