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What is "skirmish"

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skirmish
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
skirmish
noun
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ Government soldiers ran into a group of rebels, and a skirmish followed.
▪ Last night skirmishes were reported along the border.
▪ SAIC's previous skirmishes with investigators had attracted little attention.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ But what began in May 1998 as a skirmish over a remote stretch of border exposed a deep reservoir of bitterness.
▪ He talks of regrouping like a colonel after a skirmish at Yellow Tavern.
▪ Individual skirmishes flickered and stuttered in the distance.
▪ On this last one, grunts had made light contact and reported several skirmishes where we had dropped them.
▪ Such are the preliminary skirmishes of all new foundations.
▪ The peace of Utrecht ended the war proper in 1713, but desultory skirmishes carried on until 1714.
▪ They might well prevail in any skirmish with the local forces, but in the circumstances that would be of little profit.
▪ This was the first tiny skirmish in what was to be a major battle.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Skirmish

Skirmish \Skir"mish\, n.[OE. scarmishe, scrymishe. See Skirmish, v. i.]

  1. A slight fight in war; a light or desultory combat between detachments from armies, or between detached and small bodies of troops.

  2. A slight contest.

    They never meet but there's a skirmish of wit.
    --Shak.

Skirmish

Skirmish \Skir"mish\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Skirmished; p. pr. & vb. n. Skirmishing.] [OE. skirmishen, scarmishen, OF. escremir, eskermir, to fence, fight, F. escrimer, of German origin; cf. OHG. scirmen to protect, defend, G. schirmen, OHG. scirm, scerm, protection, shield, G. schirm; perhaps akin to Gr. ???? a sunshade. Cf. Scaramouch, Scrimmage.] To fight slightly or in small parties; to engage in a skirmish or skirmishes; to act as skirmishers.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
skirmish

late 14c., from Old French escarmouche "skirmish," from Italian scaramuccia, earlier schermugio, probably from a Germanic source (compare Old High German skirmen "to protect, defend"), with a diminutive or depreciatory suffix, from Proto-Germanic *skerm-, from PIE *(s)ker- (1) "to cut" (see shear (v.)).\n

\nInfluenced in Middle English by a separate verb skirmysshen "to brandish a weapon," from Old French eskirmiss-, stem of eskirmir "to fence," from Frankish *skirmjan, from the same Germanic source. Compare scrimmage. Other modern Germanic forms have an additional diminutive affix: German scharmützel, Dutch schermutseling, Danish skjærmydsel. Skirmish-line attested by 1864.

skirmish

c.1200, from Old French escarmouchier, from Italian scaramucciare (see skirmish (n.)). Related: Skirmished; skirmishing.

Wiktionary
skirmish

n. 1 (context military English) A brief battle between small groups, usually part of a longer or larger battle or war. 2 (context figuratively English) By extension, any minor dispute. 3 A type of outdoor military style game using paintball or similar weapons. vb. To engage in a minor battle or dispute

WordNet
skirmish

  1. n. a minor short-term fight [syn: brush, clash, encounter]

  2. v. engage in a skirmish

Usage examples of "skirmish".

Still more they resented being sent south for skirmish duty while Brian Boru was assembling the main army at Dublin for the battle to determine the future of Ireland.

Peter Horry had been engaged in a series of petty but rather amusing skirmishes, in the neighborhood of Georgetown.

The youth of the province were animated by the heroic, and almost incredible, valor of Ecdicius, the son of the emperor Avitus, who made a desperate sally with only eighteen horsemen, boldly attacked the Gothic army, and, after maintaining a flying skirmish, retired safe and victorious within the walls of Clermont.

Dracius, and leading the Phthian ranks came Medon flanking Podarces tough in skirmish.

Now that Godfrey had been killed in a recent skirmish between royal and rebel troops near Gloucester and had had no living heir--his son having died three years before in the war,--the castle and des mesne had been granted to Baron Alain de Treville, by King Stephen.

The sorcerous Schools, like all the Great Factions, ceaselessly skirmished with spies, assassinations, trade sanctions, and delegations of outraged envoys.

In the skirmish that followed, Iberville and Perrot pressed with a handful of men forward very close to the ranks of the English.

Forty, sixty, a hundred deaths resulting from the skirmishes between the Scrow and the Yunamata.

Iliffe, as befitted an officer in a skirmishing company, wore a light cavalry saber.

The second men of the allied skirmishing pairs fired, but the voltigeurs were too numerous and their musket fire was almost continuous and the red, green and brown jackets were falling back.

Ahead of the column the sound of the skirmishing grew in intensity as the voltigeurs closed the range and opened on the riflemen with their muskets.

Red-coated and green-jacketed skirmishers ran over the top of the British ridge, then down the long slope where they spread into the skirmishing chain.

There was some skirmishing, small outbreaks of musket fire, the feeling out of two great armies close together.

Own, when that company was advancing in skirmishing order in the face of a hot fire, kept continually encouraging his comrades in both words and action.

Smith ordered an advance of his force, the detachment of the 60th Battalion and the Home Guards advancing in skirmishing order, and the company of Victoria Rifles covering their advance from the slope of the hill.