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
Zach Przystup, Baltimore Sun, 10 Dec. 2024
The teams did not play each other in the regular season and have not met on the gridiron since Penn State topped the Ducks, 38-20, in the Rose Bowl at the end of the 1994 season.
—Tom Layberger, Forbes, 4 Dec. 2024
The Kansas City Chiefs tight end, boyfriend of Taylor Swift and star of every other commercial on TV is making big moves off the gridiron this fall, with a high-profile acting role on a buzzy new series and a hosting gig on Amazon Prime Video.
—Kelly Lawler, USA TODAY, 17 Oct. 2024
The Seahawks struggled financially and on the gridiron, and Jones was traded to the AAFC's Brooklyn Dodgers midway through his first season.
—Newsweek, 3 Nov. 2024
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Cite this Entry
“Gridiron.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gridiron. Accessed 23 Dec. 2024.
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gridiron
noun
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