How to Use skirmish in a Sentence

skirmish

1 of 2 noun
Definition of skirmishnext
Synonyms for skirmishnext
  • Skirmishes broke out between rebel groups.
  • Violent skirmishes with the enemy continue despite talks of peace.
  • In the decades since, brief skirmishes flared along the border.
    — Sarah Dadouch, Washington Post, 24 Sep. 2023
  • Drew apologizes to the group and thanks Gloria for the skirmish.
    — Patrick Ryan, USA TODAY, 9 June 2022
  • The headset toss appeared to stun nearby players and take the steam out of the skirmish.
    — Joseph Goodman | [email protected], al, 26 Aug. 2023
  • This makes back-to-back days in which Kelce was involved in a skirmish with a teammate.
    — Victoria Hernandez, USA TODAY, 29 July 2023
  • Battles and skirmishes were fought in 42 of the state’s 46 counties.
    — Jeffrey Collins, Chicago Tribune, 16 Apr. 2023
  • The Rams’ Aaron Donald was involved in a skirmish with the Bengals in a joint practice.
    — Amy Hubbard, Los Angeles Times, 26 Aug. 2022
  • Early in the race, he was tangled up in a backstretch skirmish.
    — Tony Baranek, Chicago Tribune, 9 Sep. 2022
  • San José sank off the Colombian port of Cartagena after a skirmish with the British navy in 1708.
    — Rachel Cormack, Robb Report, 6 Nov. 2023
  • The skirmishes and battles popped up in forest and field.
    — Jennifer Brett, ajc, 28 Apr. 2023
  • This is only the first legal skirmish in a wider clash that will likely take years.
    — Alexander Smith, NBC News, 26 Jan. 2024
  • The skirmish last fall began on a Montgomery County school bus.
    — Caralee Adams, Washington Post, 15 July 2023
  • The suit was filed in a legal skirmish over the ownership of the Château Miraval, a French winery the former couple bought more than a decade ago.
    — Clayton Davis, Variety, 15 Nov. 2022
  • And that skirmish could wind up being a tad more unpleasant than a parking garage tow job.
    — Nick Moyle, San Antonio Express-News, 7 Sep. 2022
  • The latest skirmish in golf’s civil war has finally seen someone take a stand against the bad guys.
    — Christine Brennan, USA TODAY, 9 June 2022
  • Residents on both sides of the border have long been accustomed to the skirmishes.
    — Sarah Dadouch, Washington Post, 19 Oct. 2023
  • The legal skirmishes in the case to date have parsed every word of McDonald’s statement.
    — Cynthia Littleton, Variety, 7 Feb. 2024
  • The rooftop of a historic New York building is the focus of a renovation skirmish between a financier and a hedge-fund mogul.
    — Eli Saslow Erin Schaff, New York Times, 25 June 2023
  • Video of the skirmish, where the far-right protesters pushed and pulled at each other, quickly spread across social media.
    — Donie O'Sullivan, CNN, 20 Nov. 2023
  • The fighting has cooled off over the past year or two, but the possibility of these skirmishes leading to all-out war is still on the table.
    — Kyle Mizokami, Popular Mechanics, 14 Aug. 2023
  • The skirmish was playing out in a kind of parallel with the war in Ukraine — more genteel surroundings, equally high stakes.
    — Washington Post, 11 Mar. 2022
  • First reported by the Free Press, the case arises from a skirmish in the classroom culture wars taking place across Michigan and the nation.
    — Paul Egan, Detroit Free Press, 16 Mar. 2022
  • Rutgers coach Greg Schiano sprinted into the skirmish from the far sideline.
    — Nathan Baird, cleveland, 1 Oct. 2022
  • The players involved in the skirmishes said there was nothing personal — just a part of team building.
    — Calvin Watkins, Dallas News, 17 Aug. 2023
  • George Hill were both ejected after a first-quarter skirmish.
    — San Francisco Chronicle, 19 Mar. 2022
  • DeSantis has won this first skirmish against Disney, but where things go from here is anyone’s guess.
    — Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times, 1 Feb. 2024
  • While the extent of the skirmishes in border villages is not clear, drone strikes and shelling on Belgorod have increased markedly in the past week.
    — Christian Edwards, CNN, 14 Mar. 2024
  • Hamas accused Israel during the last pause of breaking an agreement to release older prisoners held for a substantial period, instead freeing a number of youths who had been arrested during recent skirmishes in the West Bank.
    — Susannah George, Washington Post, 31 Jan. 2024
  • Those figures were based on a simulation in which organic fields were spread out, maximizing the pest-control border skirmishes between organic and conventional fields.
    — Karen Kaplan, Los Angeles Times, 21 Mar. 2024
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skirmish

2 of 2 verb
  • Rebel groups are skirmishing with military forces.
  • The presidential candidates skirmished over their economic plans.
  • Ethiopia had refused to accept the deal’s handing of key locations to Eritrea and the countries have skirmished over the years.
    — Washington Post, 28 June 2018
  • Ethiopia had refused to accept the deal's handing of key locations to Eritrea and the countries have skirmished over the years.
    — Elias Meseret, Fox News, 28 June 2018
  • In battle royale games like Fortnite, players skirmish in a shrinking landscape with one goal: to be the last one standing.
    — Jason M. Bailey, New York Times, 30 July 2019
  • While demonstrations were largely peaceful across the country, a small group of protesters skirmished with police at the end of a march to the Place de la Nation in eastern Paris.
    — Washington Post, 10 Oct. 2017
  • On Monday police skirmished for hours to keep protesters from entering the Barcelona airport and shutting it down.
    — Time, 17 Oct. 2019
  • Although outright fighting stopped, the two countries have skirmished a number of times in recent years and the peace agreement has not been implemented.
    — Elias Meseret, The Seattle Times, 26 June 2018
  • Ethiopia and Eritrea have not had diplomatic ties since the fighting began in 1998, with Abiy himself fighting in the war, and the countries have skirmished since then in one of Africa's longest-running conflicts.
    — Elias Meseret, Fox News, 8 July 2018
  • Ethiopia and Eritrea have not had diplomatic ties since the war began in 1998, with Abiy himself fighting in a town that remains contested today, and the countries have skirmished since then.
    — Elias Meseret, The Christian Science Monitor, 9 July 2018
  • In 1782, the war’s waning days, Kosciuszko finally served as a field commander, spying, stealing cattle and skirmishing during the siege of Charleston.
    — Erick Trickey, Smithsonian, 8 Mar. 2017
  • In 1782, the war’s waning days, Kosciuszko finally served as a field commander, spying, stealing cattle and skirmishing during the siege of Charleston.
    — Erick Trickey, Smithsonian, 8 Mar. 2017
  • This February, when one Washington rancher started skirmishing with the feds over a land dispute, Budd-Falen joined his legal team.
    — Leah Sottile, Longreads, 18 May 2018
  • Washington and Beijing have skirmished over trade this year, increasing tariffs on some products and threatening to do so on tens of billions of dollars in other goods.
    — WSJ, 8 June 2018
  • Cue some terrific effects makeovers — look for Chiwetel Ejiofor and Ed Skrein under the feathers — as well as action that outstrips the knights-versus-fairies skirmishing from last time.
    — BostonGlobe.com, 17 Oct. 2019
  • Just beyond the council chamber’s doors, angry protesters took over City Hall’s main lobby and in one instance skirmished with police officers.
    — Jose A. Del Real, New York Times, 28 Mar. 2018
  • Screens above the walkway showed footage of neo-Nazis and other white supremacists skirmishing with protesters in Charlottesville, Va., last summer.
    — Matthew Hay Brown, baltimoresun.com, 18 June 2018
  • The city has had a period of relative calm since then, though police skirmished with some protesters near Prince Edward subway station on Saturday night.
    — BostonGlobe.com, 2 Dec. 2019
  • Armed separatists have skirmished with road workers and the military, which is now overseeing highway construction.
    — Jennifer Smith, WSJ, 8 Mar. 2019
  • Protesters also skirmished with officers, who fired rubber bullets and tear gas in a repeat of Tuesday night's confrontation.
    — Doug Glass, Anchorage Daily News, 28 May 2020
  • Democrats and Republicans skirmished over authorizing the funding this fall in the House, where Republicans wanted to extend funding in exchange for funding cuts to Obamacare.
    — Sam Petulla, CNN, 14 Dec. 2017
  • Lyric sites like Genius have skirmished with publishers over the past several years; Genius suggested that the reprints could be defended as fair use but ultimately struck deals with record labels.
    — Adi Robertson, The Verge, 18 June 2019
  • Zenner, Washington and Asiata will skirmish for roster spots.
    — Pat Fitzmaurice, SI.com, 2 Aug. 2017
  • The words were emblazoned beneath an image of the cannon on a battle flag flown at the Battle of Gonzalez where Mexican dragoons skirmished unsuccessfully with the Texian rebels to decide the matter.
    — Myke Cole, The New Republic, 1 Aug. 2019
  • While litigators skirmish over assigning blame, the death has caused some experts to wonder if such features are encouraging drivers to take more risks than the technology can handle.
    — Marco Della Cava, USA TODAY, 13 Apr. 2018
  • A zoo spokeswoman said chimpanzees often skirmish to maintain social hierarchy.
    — Shane Sanderson, kansascity, 30 June 2017
  • Sunday's Derby della Mole clash between Juventus and Torino was marred by serious crowd trouble with footage surfacing of one man being pushed from a 10ft high barricade after skirmishing with a rival fan.
    — SI.com, 20 Feb. 2018
  • Laurie Wells portrays her exasperated mom, Katherine, trying to prepare for the wedding and a fashion-magazine photo shoot while verbally skirmishing with Ellie.
    — Don Aucoin, BostonGlobe.com, 15 July 2019
  • Republicans skirmished this week over whether to eliminate the state and local tax deduction -- which would amount to a trillion-dollar tax increase mostly affecting blue states including New York, California and Massachusetts.
    — Erik Wasson, Bloomberg.com, 6 Oct. 2017
  • After skirmishing with convalescing soldiers and local militiamen around the Miamiville train bridge, Morgan withdrew.
    — Cincinnati.com, 26 July 2017

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'skirmish.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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