scrim

noun

1
: a durable plain-woven usually cotton fabric for use in clothing, curtains, building, and industry
2
: a theater drop that appears opaque when a scene in front is lighted and transparent or translucent when a scene in back is lighted
3
: something likened to a theater scrim

Examples of scrim in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
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Bottles, glass ornaments, scraps of lace and strings of lights hang from branches on the ceiling, while upstage, a cave-like wall frames a round piece of fabric that sometimes evokes a pond and also becomes a scrim for silhouetted scenes. Emily McClanathan, Chicago Tribune, 21 Apr. 2026 So contaminated was the air that water droplets could cling to pollutants, slowing evaporation; the resulting scrim of moisture inhibited vertical air movement, trapping more pollution in turn. Scott W. Stern, The New York Review of Books, 13 Apr. 2026 Most visitors to London see an old-world scrim of royal palaces, ancient pubs and West End theaters. Frank Langfitt, NPR, 4 Apr. 2026 Instead of dotting the same black scrim, like pinholes in a two-dimensional theater backdrop, the stars were scattered through space at dramatically varying distances, a vast swarm of them filling every last corner of an even vaster, more numinous, and emphatically three-dimensional darkness. Michael Pollan, The Atlantic, 26 Jan. 2026 See All Example Sentences for scrim

Word History

Etymology

origin unknown

First Known Use

1793, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of scrim was in 1793

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Cite this Entry

“Scrim.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.grautoblog.com/dictionary/scrim. Accessed 24 Apr. 2026.

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