noun

• 1Strong, coarse fabric, chiefly used for heavy-duty lining or upholstery.

  1. 1.1(in a theater) a piece of gauze cloth that appears opaque until lit from behind, used as a screen or backdrop.
     ‘a plain scrim for backcloth and good lighting are all that are needed’
     More example sentences

     • ‘Viewers walking about become ghostly figures in empty rooms, their tangible bodies transformed into shadows whenever they pass behind the scrims.’
     • ‘Motifs projected onto the scrims appear to be borrowed from the architecture of the theater itself.’
     • ‘This created the illusion that the mirror was a graffitied scrim behind which lay another room.’
     • ‘The main space features a 9.5-foot- high ramp that traverses the entire length of the hall, with views to theatrical scrims and to the workers below.’
     • ‘The Mush Stage depicts a free-form puppet theater where, around a hapless stick-figure marionette, float a plethora of scrims, stage maquettes, painted backdrops and hinged windows.’
     • ‘Those descending the ramp see the agency's work projected on a series of theatrical scrims.’
     • ‘The screens of scrim are elaborately constructed, held away from the dance studio's glass walls, offering protection from the elements and shade from the brutal desert sun.’
     • ‘‘There's a piece of some scrim net, a clothes, matches, batteries, and a compact emergency kit which has flares, and nutrient tablets,’ answered Arlyn quickly.’
     • ‘Each is covered with a veil of scrim, painted again and then sanded, so that the surface appears to shimmer from light trapped within.’
     • ‘Here, the thin scrim is manipulated three-dimensionally with greater freedom than the watertight volumes it veils.’
  2. 1.2A heatproof cloth put over film or television lamps to diffuse the light.
  3. 1.3North American A thing that conceals or obscures something.
     ‘a thin scrim of fog covered the island’
     More example sentences

     • ‘The second fan generated a semblance of underwater movement in Atlantic, scrim rippling along the flow.’
     • ‘He pulls the building's structural frame back from the facade so that the glass is read as a thin, form-covering scrim.’
     • ‘A voice whispered ‘Let me think,’ as a black scrim descended.’
     • ‘Otto-Knapp's Japanese Style Apartments on Figueroa shows the local historicizing architecture overwhelmed by a scrim of green foliage.’
     • ‘It is nature as seen through a scrim of culture, the ocean as we might dream or imagine it.’