Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Baseball One of nine divisions or periods of a regulation game, in which each team has a turn at bat as limited by three outs.
  • noun Sports The division or period of a cricket game during which one team is at bat.
  • noun An opportunity to act or speak out; a chance for accomplishment.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The process of taking in; specifically, the reclaiming of marshy land by draining and banking and fitting it for bearing crops; also the land so reclaimed.
  • noun The act or process of getting in, as crops; harvesting.
  • noun A bringing or taking in; an ingathering, as of grain; a winning or gaining.
  • noun The time during which a person or party is in, or in action, in a game or an operation; a turn: usually (in Great Britain always) in the plural form, whether with a singular or a plural sense.
  • noun The term of office of a person; the time during which a party is in power; more generally, any opportunity for activity or influence: as, it is your innings now.
  • noun Land inclosed, when recovered from the sea.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun obsolete Ingathering; harvesting.
  • noun The state or turn of being in; specifically, in cricket, baseball, etc., each period during which both teams get one turn each at bat; -- often in the pl.
  • noun Lands recovered from the sea.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun baseball A period of play in which members of a visiting baseball team attempt to hit a baseball pitched by the opposing home team until three players are called out, followed by a similar attempt by members of the home baseball team against the visiting team's pitching. There are nine or more innings in a regulation baseball game.
  • noun softball A similar period of play.
  • noun billiards A player (or team)'s turn at the table to make shots until ended by a miss or a foul.
  • noun A chance or opportunity to perform some deed or act.
  • noun obsolete Lands recovered from the sea.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun (baseball) one of nine divisions of play during which each team has a turn at bat

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English innynge, a getting in, from Old English innung, gerund of innian, to put in, from in, in; see in.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Back-formation from innings, mistaken to be plural of the time period, not the entries of the batters/batsmen.

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Examples

  • That first out of the inning is the most important.

    USATODAY.com 2003

  • The Phillies scored first in this game but despite having men in scoring position in every inning from the 5th on, were unable to score again and as the game progressed you couldn't help getting the feeling that it just wasn't going to be our year.

    Larry Abrams: The Philadelphia Perspective: The Phillies Lose the Pennant Larry Abrams 2010

  • The Phillies scored first in this game but despite having men in scoring position in every inning from the 5th on, were unable to score again and as the game progressed you couldn't help getting the feeling that it just wasn't going to be our year.

    Larry Abrams: The Philadelphia Perspective: The Phillies Lose the Pennant Larry Abrams 2010

  • - Akinori Iwamura, who committed seven errors all season at second base, has two Sunday night before the fourth inning is over?

    Tampa Bay down to its last ray of hope 2008

  • The Rays 'franchise record for runs in an inning is 11, done twice: last Aug. 27 at Baltimore, and on May 28, 2000, against Seattle.

    USATODAY.com 2007

  • '' The first inning is probably the hardest one I've had.

    USATODAY.com 2007

  • So, what started Aug. 23 in San Francisco when Rollins doubled off the Giants 'Brian Cooper in the ninth inning is still alive.

    USATODAY.com - Last at-bat keeps Rollins on hitting roll 2006

  • For lower level games, the best location for the top of the 1st inning is in the stands behind the backstop to get the pitcher.

    How to shoot baseball and softball 2006

  • For lower level games, the best location for the top of the 1st inning is in the stands behind the backstop to get the pitcher.

    Archive 2006-04-01 2006

  • Even the PNC Park scoreboard crew seem flustered by a breakout inning from a team that began the night tied with Washington for the fewest runs in the majors.

    USATODAY.com - Scores 2005

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