# rugby

Pronunciation: say "RUG-bee" /ˈɹʌɡbi/

## Noun

1. A form of football with an oval ball carried or kicked but never handled forward; points come from grounding it past the opponents' goal line or kicking it over the crossbar between the posts.
   - Simple: A team sport where players carry or kick an oval ball but never throw it forward.
   - _Unlike soccer, rugby lets players pick up the ball and run with it._
   - _The two rugbies, league and union, still disagree on how many players take the field._
2. In the narrower sense, the form of the game known as rugby union.
   - Simple: The particular form of the sport known as rugby union.
   - _After two seasons of league, he crossed codes and signed a contract to play rugby in France._
   - _The club fields teams in both rugby and league, and the rugby side draws the bigger crowds._
3. Short for rugby shirt. — Ellipsis of rugby shirt (“a shirt of the kind worn by rugby players, usually short-sleeved and with a buttoned opening at the neck like a polo shirt, but with a stiffer collar”).
   - Simple: Short for rugby shirt. Used mostly when talking about what someone is wearing.
   - _He showed up to the barbecue in a faded rugby, cargo shorts, and boat shoes._
   - _The catalog sells a heavyweight cotton rugby with a stiff white collar._
4. Rubber or contact cement, a solvent-based adhesive widely associated with glue sniffing because it is often inhaled to get high. *(Philippines)*
   - Simple: A strong rubber glue, often linked with people who sniff glue to get high.
   - _He picked up a small can of rugby at the hardware to glue the rubber trim back on the door._
   - _Outreach workers try to get street kids to stop sniffing rugby._

## Verb

5. To play the game of rugby.
   - Simple: To play the sport of rugby.

## Origin

**Meanings 1–3, 5** — Named after Rugby School in Rugby, Warwickshire, England, where the modern game was developed in the 19th century. The town's name appears in the Domesday Book as Old English Rocheberie, probably rook + -by ('village, town'), and possibly comes from *Hrōceburh, from hrōc ('rook') + burh ('fort, stronghold; town').
**Meaning 4** — A genericized trademark, from Rugby, a brand of rubber cement made by Bostik.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/rugby (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).