scrum

[ skruhm ]

noun

1. a rugby play in which three members of each team line up opposite one another with a group of two and a group of three players behind them: the ball is then rolled between the opposing front lines and players attempt to kick the ball backward to a teammate.
2. a project management method often used in agile development, centering around a small team with a schedule of short, fixed-length work cycles, each of which is used to complete some chunk of a complex or ongoing project. sprint ( def 6 ).
3. a place or situation of confusion and racket; hubbub.
4. a chaotic, rushed attempt by multiple reporters to question one or more politicians, celebrities, etc.:

   The minister always left meetings through a back door to avoid the daily scrum.

verb (used without object)

, scrummed, scrum·ming.

1. to engage in a scrum.

scrum

/ skrʌm /

noun

1. rugby the act or method of restarting play after an infringement when the two opposing packs of forwards group together with heads down and arms interlocked and push to gain ground while the scrum half throws the ball in and the hookers attempt to scoop it out to their own team. A scrum is usually called by the referee ( set scrum ) but may be formed spontaneously ( loose scrum )
2. informal.
   a disorderly struggle

verb

1. intrusually foll bydown rugby to form a scrum

Word History and Origins

Origin of scrum¹

First recorded in 1885–90; short for scrummage

Word History and Origins

Origin of scrum¹

C19: shortened from scrummage

Example Sentences

Ten minutes and 18 seconds after it began, the experience ended, and Blue Origin personnel opened the capsule and guided the newly minted astronauts to a scrum of family and well-wishers waiting to congratulate them.

From Popular-Science

There’s a scrum in my brain as instinct, reason and parental authority collide, and in the end I acquiesce.

From Washington Post

Boston, scoreless on its four previous power plays, made this one count when Marchand knocked the puck out of the air during a scrum in front for a crucial equalizer.

From Washington Post

A scrum ensued, during which Artemi Panarin jumped on Wilson’s back and Wilson rag-dolled the helmetless Rangers star to the ice.

From Washington Post

The wisdom of the crowd, whether it’s a modest team-sized collective or a larger national media-sized scrum, is just not very wise when it comes to ranking NFL prospects.

From FiveThirtyEight

While van der Sloot may well have been cut in Challapaca, there is no reliable indication that he got stabbed in a prison scrum.

From The Daily Beast

Another result was a line of TV news trucks and a scrum of photographers outside the funeral as the church filled to overflowing.

From The Daily Beast

As the game ended, tension between the two sides boiled over into a scrum of stick swinging, pushing, and punching.

From The Daily Beast

In the halls around the event Cruz attracted a giant scrum when he was briefly visible.

From The Daily Beast

In the scrum of reporters backstage after the show, someone asked Mulleavy whether the collection had a “Vegas connection.”

From The Daily Beast

The scrimmages were the tightest and neatest ever watched, and neither scrum could screw the other a foot.

From Project Gutenberg

None of the old-fashioned pit-of-the-theatre scrum for passport inspection, on the smoking-room deck.

From Project Gutenberg

Officers jostled privates, sailors vied with soldiers in the scrum before the entrance to the microbic land of tunnels.

From Project Gutenberg

He was shoved into the scrum, was perfectly useless, and spent his whole time trying to escape notice.

From Project Gutenberg

Jeffries was ubiquitous; he led the "grovel" (as the scrum was called at Fernhurst), and kept it together.

From Project Gutenberg