ice hockey

American

noun

a game played on ice between two teams of six skaters each, the object being to score goals by shooting a puck into the opponents' cage using a stick with a wooden blade set at an obtuse angle to the shaft.

ice hockey British

noun

a game played on ice by two opposing teams of six players each, who wear skates and try to propel a flat puck into their opponents' goal with long sticks having an offset flat blade at the end

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of ice hockey

First recorded in 1880–85

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

If men’s basketball is the U.S.’s most popular and professional-filled team sport at the Summer Olympic Games, then men’s ice hockey is its Winter Olympics analogue.

From Los Angeles Times

USA men's ice hockey player Brady Tkachuk has distanced himself from an AI-enhanced White House video in which he appears to disparage Canadians, saying "those words would never come out of my mouth".

From BBC

USA won both men's and women's ice hockey gold for the first time at the Milan-Cortina Games this month.

From BBC

Jack Hughes lost his front teeth before scoring the overtime goal that gave the USA Olympic ice hockey gold for the first time for 46 years on Sunday.

From Barron's

The United States won the men's Olympic ice hockey gold medal for the first time in 46 years by beating neighbours Canada 2-1 in a sensational conclusion to the 2026 Winter Olympics.

From BBC

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023