skirmish

plural skirmishes · alternative scirmish

1. governmentA brief battle between small groups, usually part of a longer or larger battle or war.

   The walls are slitted with embrasures through which bowmen could fire, indicating that the belfry also served as a stronghold during border skirmishes.

   1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 311, about the church at Pembridge

   1 more example

   On 2 March, Chinese border guards with the help of regular PLA forces skillfully ambushed Strelnikov's unit on the ice near Chen Pao, killing him and 30 Soviets in the subsequent skirmish.

   1970 April 28, “Chen Pao Battle and Subsequent Threat Campaign”, in The Evolution of Soviet Policy in the Sino-Soviet Border Dispute, Directorate of Intelligence, published 2007, →OCLC, page 34

2. broadlyfigurativelyAny minor dispute.

   Three people were arrested after a skirmish in a bar.

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   Fires which have heretofore been one‐alarm skirmishes are now multialarm small wars.

   1977 February 14, Joseph E. Galvin, “Under Fire”, in The New York Times

   Synonyms: scrap

3. A type of outdoor military style game using paintball or similar weapons.

present singular third person skirmishes · participle present skirmishing · participle past skirmished · past skirmished · alternative scirmish

1. intransitiveTo engage in a minor battle or dispute.

   Other historians might also remark that […] they have persisted all this time, constantly wrestling and skirmishing and yet never destroying themselves.

   2019, Adrian Tchaikovsky, Children of Ruin, Macmillan, page 376

   1 more example

   The deer and the pig and the nilghai were milling round and round in a circle of eight or ten miles radius, while the Eaters of Flesh skirmished round its edge.

   1895 November, Rudyard Kipling, The Second Jungle Book, London; New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC