field (fēld), n. [OE. feld, fild, AS. feld; akin to D. veld, G. feld, Sw. fält, Dan. felt, Icel. fold field of grass, AS. folde earth, land, ground, OS. folda.]
1. Cleared land; land suitable for tillage or pasture; cultivated ground; the open country.
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2. A piece of land of considerable size; esp., a piece inclosed for tillage or pasture.
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Fields which promise corn and wine. Byron.
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3. A place where a battle is fought; also, the battle itself.
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In this glorious and well-foughten field. Shak.
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What though the field be lost? Milton.
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4. An open space; an extent; an expanse. Esp.: (a) Any blank space or ground on which figures are drawn or projected. (b) The space covered by an optical instrument at one view; as, “wide-field binoculars”.
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Without covering, save yon field of stars. Shak.
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Ask of yonder argent fields above. Pope.
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5. (Her.) The whole surface of an escutcheon; also, so much of it is shown unconcealed by the different bearings upon it. See Illust. of Fess, where the field is represented as gules (red), while the fess is argent (silver).
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6. An unresticted or favorable opportunity for action, operation, or achievement; province; room.
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Afforded a clear field for moral experiments. Macaulay.
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7. (Sports) An open, usually flat, piece of land on which a sports contest is played; a playing field; as, “a football field; a baseball field”.
Syn. -- playing field, athletic field, playing area.
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8. Specifically: (Baseball) That part of the grounds reserved for the players which is outside of the diamond; -- called also outfield.
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9. A geographic region (land or sea) which has some notable feature, activity or valuable resource; as, “the diamond fields of South Africa; an oil field; a gold field; an ice field”.
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10. A facility having an airstrip where airplanes can take off and land; an airfield.
Syn. -- airfield, landing field, flying field, aerodrome.
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11. A collective term for all the competitors in any outdoor contest or trial, or for all except the favorites in the betting.
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12. A branch of knowledge or sphere of activity; especially, a learned or professional discipline; as, “she's an expert in the field of geology; in what field did she get her doctorate?; they are the top company in the field of entertainment”.
Syn. -- discipline, subject, subject area, subject field, field of study, study, branch of knowledge.
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Within the master text files of this electronic dictionary, where a word is used in a specific sense in some specialized field of knowledge, that field is indicated by the tags: () preceding that sense of the word.
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13. A location, usually outdoors, away from a studio or office or library or laboratory, where practical work is done or data is collected; as, “anthropologists do much of their work in the field; the paleontologist is in the field collecting specimens”. Usually used in the phrase in the field.
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14. (Physics) The influence of a physical object, such as an electrically charged body, which is capable of exerting force on objects at a distance; also, the region of space over which such an influence is effective; as, “the earth's gravitational field; an electrical field; a magnetic field; a force field”.
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15. (Math.) A set of elements within which operations can be defined analagous to the operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division on the real numbers; within such a set of elements addition and multiplication are commutative and associative and multiplication is distributive over addition and there are two elements 0 and 1; a commutative division ring; as, “the set of all rational numbers is a field”.
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☞ Field is often used adjectively in the sense of belonging to, or used in, the fields; especially with reference to the operations and equipments of an army during a campaign away from permanent camps and fortifications. In most cases such use of the word is sufficiently clear; as, field battery; field fortification; field gun; field hospital, etc. A field geologist, naturalist, etc., is one who makes investigations or collections out of doors. A survey uses a field book for recording field notes, i.e., measurement, observations, etc., made in field work (outdoor operations). A farmer or planter employs field hands, and may use a field roller or a field derrick. Field sports are hunting, fishing, athletic games, etc.
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Coal field (Geol.) See under Coal. -- Field artillery, light ordnance mounted on wheels, for the use of a marching army. -- Field basil (Bot.), a plant of the Mint family (Calamintha Acinos); -- called also basil thyme. -- Field colors (Mil.), small flags for marking out the positions for squadrons and battalions; camp colors. -- Field cricket (Zool.), a large European cricket (Gryllus campestric), remarkable for its loud notes. -- Field day. (a) A day in the fields. (b) (Mil.) A day when troops are taken into the field for instruction in evolutions. Farrow. (c) A day of unusual exertion or display; a gala day. -- Field driver, in New England, an officer charged with the driving of stray cattle to the pound. -- Field duck (Zool.), the little bustard (Otis tetrax), found in Southern Europe. -- Field glass. (Optics) (a) A binocular telescope of compact form; a lorgnette; a race glass. (b) A small achromatic telescope, from 20 to 24 inches long, and having 3 to 6 draws. (c) See Field lens. -- Field lark.
(Zool..) (a) The skylark. (b) The tree pipit. -- Field lens (Optics), that one of the two lenses forming the eyepiece of an astronomical telescope or compound microscope which is nearer the object glass; -- called also field glass. -- Field madder (Bot.), a plant (Sherardia arvensis) used in dyeing. -- Field marshal (Mil.), the highest military rank conferred in the British and other European armies. -- Field officer (Mil.), an officer above the rank of captain and below that of general. -- Field officer's court (U.S.Army), a court-martial consisting of one field officer empowered to try all cases, in time of war, subject to jurisdiction of garrison and regimental courts. Farrow. -- Field plover (Zool.), the black-bellied plover (Charadrius squatarola); also sometimes applied to the Bartramian sandpiper (Bartramia longicauda). -- Field spaniel (Zool.), a small spaniel used in hunting small game. -- Field sparrow. (Zool.) (a) A small American sparrow (Spizella pusilla). (b) The hedge sparrow. [Eng.] --
Field staff (Mil.), a staff formerly used by gunners to hold a lighted match for discharging a gun. -- Field vole (Zool.), the European meadow mouse. -- Field of ice, a large body of floating ice; a pack. -- Field, or Field of view, in a telescope or microscope, the entire space within which objects are seen. -- Field magnet. see under Magnet. -- Magnetic field. See Magnetic. -- To back the field, or To bet on the field. See under Back, v. t. -- To keep the field. (a) (Mil.) To continue a campaign. (b) To maintain one's ground against all comers. -- To lay against the field or To back against the field, to bet on (a horse, etc.) against all comers. -- To take the field (Mil.), to enter upon a campaign.
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