Gridiron

WORD OF THE DAY

gridiron / noun / GRID-eye-ern

Definition
1: a grate for broiling food
2: something consisting of or covered with a network
3: a football field


Examples
"Despite his prowess on the gridiron, he received little attention from Division-I football programs."
— Tom Layberger, Forbes, 14 Sept. 2018

"[Thomas] Jefferson wanted wide streets, lots of land reserved for public space, and a rectangular pattern of streets. L'Enfant insisted on radial avenues that intersect a gridiron of streets at odd angles. Many city planners believe that if Jefferson's plan had been adopted, there would be fewer traffic problems in Washington, D.C., today."
— Ann Feetham, Cobblestone, 1 Sept. 2012

Did You Know?
Modern gridirons are covered in football players when they're in use, but the original gridirons were more likely to be covered with meat or fish; they were metal gratings used for broiling food over an open fire.
In Middle English, such a grating was called a gredil, a root that gave modern English both gridiron and griddle. How did gridiron become associated with football?
That happened in the late 1800s, when a white grid pattern was added to football fields to help enforce new rules about how many yards a team had to gain to keep possession of the ball.
From high up in the stands, the lines made the playing fields look like cooking gridirons.