How to Use skirmish in a Sentence

skirmish

1 of 2 noun
  • Skirmishes broke out between rebel groups.
  • Violent skirmishes with the enemy continue despite talks of peace.
  • The skirmish brought players from both teams out of the dugouts and out of the bullpens.
    — Ryan Gaydos, FOXNews.com, 2 Nov. 2025
  • In the decades since, brief skirmishes flared along the border.
    — Sarah Dadouch, Washington Post, 24 Sep. 2023
  • Johnson calls it the Iran skirmish.
    — Voice Of The People, New York Daily News, 28 May 2026
  • Walker, in a 10-pitch skirmish, drew a walk.
    — Matt Kawahara, Houston Chronicle, 19 Apr. 2026
  • This is only the first legal skirmish in a wider clash that will likely take years.
    — Alexander Smith, NBC News, 26 Jan. 2024
  • Early in the race, he was tangled up in a backstretch skirmish.
    — Tony Baranek, Chicago Tribune, 9 Sep. 2022
  • Reigns tried to avoid it during their skirmish on Monday.
    — Ryan Gaydos, FOXNews.com, 9 May 2026
  • Swayman went down to one knee and the referees broke up the skirmish.
    — Ryan Gaydos, FOXNews.com, 2 Feb. 2026
  • This makes back-to-back days in which Kelce was involved in a skirmish with a teammate.
    — Victoria Hernandez, USA TODAY, 29 July 2023
  • That led to a small skirmish with the governor’s office.
    — Josie Reich, Hartford Courant, 21 Jan. 2026
  • 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 headset toss appeared to stun nearby players and take the steam out of the skirmish.
    — Joseph Goodman | [email protected], al, 26 Aug. 2023
  • Another punch was thrown as the skirmish ended.
    — Ryan Gaydos, FOXNews.com, 13 Oct. 2025
  • Drew apologizes to the group and thanks Gloria for the skirmish.
    — Patrick Ryan, USA TODAY, 9 June 2022
  • There’s this skirmish going on in the Middle East.
    — Scott Travis, Sun Sentinel, 6 May 2026
  • George Hill were both ejected after a first-quarter skirmish.
    — San Francisco Chronicle, 19 Mar. 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
  • The videos do not appear to show Pretti holding a weapon during the skirmish that led to his death.
    — Kayla Hayempour, NBC news, 25 Jan. 2026
  • Steve’s gun barked almost in my ear, and the sound brought that treetop skirmish to a sudden conclusion.
    — Charles Elliott, Outdoor Life, 21 Aug. 2025
  • The Peaky Blinders don’t really lose any men at all in this skirmish.
    — Roxana Hadadi, Vulture, 20 Mar. 2026
  • The skirmish last fall began on a Montgomery County school bus.
    — Caralee Adams, Washington Post, 15 July 2023
  • Immediately, a skirmish broke out on the field.
    — Shreyas Laddha, Kansas City Star, 20 Sep. 2025
  • Tempers flared between the teams, leading to a couple of skirmishes.
    — Adam Thompson, CBS News, 18 May 2026
  • Residents on both sides of the border have long been accustomed to the skirmishes.
    — Sarah Dadouch, Washington Post, 19 Oct. 2023
  • Players and officials from both teams gathered to break up the skirmish, which lasted a few seconds.
    — Blair Kerkhoff, Kansas City Star, 13 Oct. 2025
  • But minor skirmishes on the frontiers, dressed up as triumphs, were usually enough for most rulers.
    — Christopher Tayler, Harper's Magazine, 18 Dec. 2023
  • Battles and skirmishes were fought in 42 of the state’s 46 counties.
    — Jeffrey Collins, Chicago Tribune, 16 Apr. 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

skirmish

2 of 2 verb
  • Rebel groups are skirmishing with military forces.
  • The presidential candidates skirmished over their economic plans.
  • The two sides have also skirmished along the border in the past.
    — NPR, 12 Oct. 2025
  • The Israeli army and Hamas are still skirmishing along the cease-fire line.
    — Yair Rosenberg, The Atlantic, 21 Oct. 2025
  • Poulin lay prone on the ice for a moment before getting to her knees, grimacing in obvious pain as the two teams skirmished up the ice.
    — Hailey Salvian, New York Times, 9 Feb. 2026
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • On Monday police skirmished for hours to keep protesters from entering the Barcelona airport and shutting it down.
    — Time, 17 Oct. 2019
  • Armed separatists have skirmished with road workers and the military, which is now overseeing highway construction.
    — Jennifer Smith, WSJ, 8 Mar. 2019
  • Over the last few months, the two have occasionally skirmished along their winding, porous frontier as tension has escalated.
    — ABC News, 27 Feb. 2026
  • Watching the map provides all the information about where combatants are moving, what skirmishes they’re engaged in, and where points of convergence may arise.
    — Christopher Cruz, Rolling Stone, 22 Feb. 2025
  • Zenner, Washington and Asiata will skirmish for roster spots.
    — Pat Fitzmaurice, SI.com, 2 Aug. 2017
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • Garcia, who had the backing of the same progressive groups backing Hernandez, frequently skirmished with Gallego.
    — Taylor Seely, The Arizona Republic, 13 Nov. 2024
  • Interim skirmishes that attempt to hold up finalizing the results of minor elections are sending Democrats into a panic.
    — Max Thornberry, Washington Examiner - Political News and Conservative Analysis About Congress, the President, and the Federal Government, 3 July 2024
  • 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
  • Officials have skirmished over foreign washing machines and Canadian softwood lumber imports.
    — The Economist, 6 June 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
  • 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
  • The two eyed each other warily as Armenia and Azerbaijan skirmished in the early 2000s.
    — Maria Snegovaya, Foreign Affairs, 25 Nov. 2024
  • Regional war remains a possibility as the Jewish state and Hezbollah continue to skirmish.
    — Lloyd Green, New York Daily News, 27 June 2024
  • 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
  • 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
  • But while some eagles and peregrines frequently attack flying prey and will skirmish with other raptors, kestrels generally hunt creatures on the ground and are usually on the receiving ends of attacks or ‘mobbing’ by other birds in the air.
    — David Hambling, Forbes.com, 11 July 2025
  • 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
  • As drug companies skirmished over intellectual property, 24 million people got sicker.
    — Katherine Eban, Quartz India, 15 July 2019
  • The case has become a classic watercooler smash in both the real world, where pro- and anti-Read protesters clashed outside the courthouse, and on social media where partisans skirmish seemingly without end.
    — Flint McColgan, Boston Herald, 26 Mar. 2025

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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