Sports slang for the opening game of a season, tournament, or competition — the event that 'lifts the lid' and officially kicks things off. The metaphor suggests the excitement of opening something up: once the lid comes off, the whole season spills out. Used in American sports journalism and broadcasting, particularly for baseball and hockey season openers, where the first game of the year carries outsized emotional weight after months of offseason waiting.
Everyone turned out for the lid-lifter, hoping the new roster would show something they hadn't seen from this team in years.
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(sports, slang) The first game played.
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Regional slang from around the English-speaking world — British, Australian, Irish, Caribbean, Nigerian, Filipino, AAVE, and the hyphenated-English dialects that make the internet sound local.
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