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To fight slightly or in small parties; to engage in a skirmish or skirmishes; to act as skirmishers.

One who skirmishes. Specifically: pl. (Mil.)

To skirmish; to exchange blows; to fight. [Obs.] Two eagles had a conflict, and bickered together. Holland.

A skirmishing. "Frays and bickerings." Milton.

A skirmish; a slight encounter; a shock or collision; as, to have a brush with an enemy. Let grow thy sinews till their knots be strong, And tempt not yet the brushes of the war. Shak.

nce or dart made of cane. [R.] Judgelike thou sitt'st, to praise or to arraign The flying skirmish of the darted cane. Dryden.

t my house, and at my proper cost. Shak. At less cost of life than is often expended in a skirmish, [Charles V.] saved Europe from invasion. Prescott.

To delay unnecessarily; to while away. Dallying off the time with often skirmishes. Knolles.

One who, or that which, flanks, as a skirmisher or a body of troops sent out upon the flanks of an army toguard a line of march, or a fort projecting so as to command the side of an assailing body. They threw out flankers, and endeavored to dislodge their assailants. W. Irwing.

partisan soldier, or one belonging to a corps of detached light troops engaged in forays, skirmishes, scouting, etc.

To move rapidly; to wheel or rush suddenly or with violence; to whirl round rapidly; to skirmish. Now hurtling round, advantage for to take. Spenser. Down the hurtling cataract of the ages. R. L. Stevenson.

To make a raid for booty; to maraud; also, to skirmish in advance of an army. See Picaroon. [Obs.] Bp. Burnet.

ttle; a battle in which the hostile forces have fixed positions; -- in distinction from a skirmish. -- To pitch into, to attack; to assault; to abuse. [Slang]

To meet unexpectedly; to encounter in a hostile manner; to come in collision; to skirmish.

A call sounded on a bugle, announcing to skirmishers that they are to retire, or fall back.

A slight contest; a skirmish. See Skirmish. [Obs.] Such cruel game my scarmoges disarms. Spenser.

Formerly, a skirmish; now, a general row or confused fight or struggle.

Vigorous; sharp; severe. "Smart skirmishes, in which many fell." Clarendon.

metimes in the rear to check his pursuit. The term is now applied to all troops acting as skirmishers.

ilike. A tumultuary attack of the Celtic peasantry. Macaulay. Sudden flight or tumultuary skirmish. De Quincey.