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Gaelic football

British

noun

an Irish game played with 15 players on each side and goals resembling rugby posts with a net on the bottom part. Players are allowed to kick, punch, and bounce the ball and attempt to get it over the bar or in the net

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Kelly: Was there ever a chance you could have gone into Gaelic football rather than football?

From BBC • Mar. 14, 2026

Mescal was an athlete, competing in Gaelic football, but transitioned to acting and later graduated from the drama school at Trinity College Dublin in 2017.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 20, 2026

That’s when Giants kicker Jude McAtamney, who’s from Northern Ireland and grew up playing the entirely different sport of Gaelic football, missed his second extra point of the game.

From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 20, 2025

If he didn't take that time and care to look after me, I might have got into Gaelic football or hurling instead.

From BBC • Oct. 18, 2025

But the greatest crowds of all go to see Gaelic football, the national game; and to hurling, also distinctively Irish, they foregather in serried masses.

From The Glories of Ireland by Lennox, P. J.

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023