Scrum

A “scrum” (SKRUM) is a rugby play in which players from both sides line up around the ball and struggle to gain possession of it. By extension, the word is used for any disordered or confused situation involving a number of people.

Example (as used by Rob Walker in a New York Times article about a buying frenzy at the H&M store in Manhattan): “But even this minor retail scrum was, in a way, of a piece with the zeitgeist: It was about snapping up a high-end apparel brand [Comme des Garcons] at apparently bargain prices.”

Copyright ETR, LLC, 2009