gridiron
noun
Did you know?
Are you ready for some football... lingo? Excellent, and if your big game preparations involve firing up a griddle at a tailgate party, even better—American football shares linguistic ties with that form of cookery. One of the oldest senses of gridiron referred not to a football field but to a metal grate used for broiling food over an open fire. In Middle English, such a grating was called a gredil, a root that gave modern English both gridiron and griddle. How did gridiron become associated with football? That happened in the late 1800s, when early football fields were marked in a grid, not by the familiar parallel yard lines we know today. From high up in the stands, the lines made the playing fields look like cooking gridirons. You might remember this the next time your favorite player is hotdogging in the end zone.
Examples of gridiron in a Sentence
Newsweek, 3 Nov. 2024
Macaulay Culkin is heading to the gridiron in his Halloween costume.
—Tommy McArdle, People.com, 1 Nov. 2024
The gizmo is changing sports — and one reason why the 23-year-old looks so much beyond his years on the gridiron.
—Cuneyt Dil, Axios, 18 Oct. 2024
Politicians often turn to the gridiron for shorthand.
—Louisa Thomas, The New Yorker, 13 Oct. 2024
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Cite this Entry
“Gridiron.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gridiron. Accessed 23 Nov. 2024.
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gridiron
noun
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