Etimology
From Middle English feeld, feld, from Old English feld, from Proto-West Germanic *felþu, from Proto-Germanic *felþuz (“field”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *pleh₂- (“field, plain”) or *pleth₂- (“flat”) (with schwebeablaut). Cognate with Scots feld, feild (“field”), North Frisian fjild (“field”), West Frisian fjild (“field”), Dutch veld (“field”), German Feld (“field”), Swedish fält (“field”). Related also to Old English folde (“earth, land, territory”), Old English folm (“palm of the hand”). More at fold.
noun
field (plural fields)
A land area free of woodland, cities, and towns; an area of open country.
A wide, open space that is used to grow crops or to hold farm animals, usually enclosed by a fence, hedge or other barrier.
(geology) A region containing a particular mineral.
An airfield, airport or air base; especially, one with unpaved runways.
A place where competitive matches are carried out.
Any of various figurative meanings, often dead metaphors.
(cricket) Archaic form of fielder.
Examples
There are several species of wild flowers growing in this field.
Harry shook his head, and wandered away miserable through the fields, and would not in these days even set his foot upon the soil of the park. “He was not going to intrude any farther,” he said to the rector. “You can come to church, at any rate,” his father said, “for he certainly will not be there while you are at the parsonage.” Oh yes, Harry would go to the church. “I have yet to understand that Mr. Prosper is owner of the church, and the path there from the rectory is, at any rate, open to the public;” for at Buston the church stands on one corner of the park.
I corralled the judge, and we started off across the fields, in no very mild state of fear of that gentleman's wife, whose vigilance was seldom relaxed. And thus we came by a circuitous route to Mohair, the judge occupied by his own guilty thoughts, and I by others not less disturbing.
There were some cows grazing in a field.
A crop circle was made in a corn field.
The castled crag of DrachenfelsFrowns o’er the wide and winding RhineWhose breast of waters broadly swellsBetween the banks which bear the vineAnd hills all rich with blossomed treesAnd fields which promise corn and wineAnd scatter’d cities crowning theseWhose far white walls along them shine,Have strew’d a scene, which I should seeWith double joy wert thou with mo.
Anstruther laughed good-naturedly. “[…] I shall take out half a dozen intelligent maistries from our Press and get them to give our villagers instruction when they begin work and when they are in the fields.”
an oil field; a gold field
Tarry, sweet soul, for mine; then fly abreast,As in this glorious and well-foughten fieldWe kept together in our chivalry!
[…] What though the field be lost?All is not lost; th’ unconquerable will,And study of revenge, immortal hate,And courage never to submit or yield,And what is else not to be overcome;That glory never shall his wrath or might!
soccer field
Substitutes are only allowed onto the field after their boots are checked.
Blake was a thorough gambler, and knew well how to make the most of the numerous chances which the turf afforded him. He had a large stud of horses, to the training and working of which he attended almost as closely as the person whom he paid for doing so. But it was in the betting-ring that he was most formidable. It was said, in Kildare Street, that no one at Tattersall's could beat him at a book. He had latterly been trying a wider field than the Curragh supplied him and had, on one or two occasions, run a horse in England with such success, as had placed him, at any rate, quite at the top of the Irish sporting tree.
Dr. Finn understood enough of elections for Parliament, and of the nature of boroughs, to be aware that a candidate’s chance of success is very much improved by being early in the field.
This racehorse is the strongest in a weak field.
magnetic field; gravitational field; scalar field
field of view
The design needs to be field-tested before we commit to manufacture.
Field work traditionally distinguishes true archaeologists from armchair archaeologists.
He needs some time in the field before his judgment can be trusted.
As towns continue to grow, replanting vegetation has become a form of urban utopia and green roofs are spreading fast. Last year 1m square metres of plant-covered roofing was built in France, as much as in the US, and 10 times more than in Germany, the pioneer in this field.
He was an expert in the field of Chinese history.
Penn was without doubt a man of eminent virtues. He had a strong sense of religious duty and a fervent desire to promote the happiness of mankind. On one or two points of high importance, he had notions more correct than were, in his day, common even among men of enlarged minds: and as the proprietor and legislator of a province which, being almost uninhabited when it came into his possession, afforded a clear field for moral experiments, he had the rare good fortune of being able to carry his theories into practice without any compromise, and yet without any shock to existing institutions.
Tidings had reached her of this and the other man’s success, and,—coming near to her still,—of this and that other woman’s earnings in literature. And it had seemed to her that, within moderate limits, she might give a wide field to her hopes.
The set of rational numbers, Q {\displaystyle \mathbb {Q} } , is the prototypical field.
Whereas a ring has three binary operators: an additive operator, a subtractive operator, and a multiplicative operator, a field has four binary operators: the three ring binary operators and a divisive operator.
The form has fields for each element of the customer's home address and shipping address.
From the validation rules table on the previous page, we see that the "Name", "E-mail", and "Gender" fields are required. These fields cannot be empty and must be filled out in the HTML form.
Read-only fields allow you to establish a point of data whose value is not known at compile time, but that should never change once established.
The manager should always choose his own Eleven; and, we have already hinted that fielding, rather than batting, is the qualification. A good field is sure to save runs, though the best batsman may not make any.
Related words
synonyms
(course of study or domain of knowledge): area, domain, sphere, realm
(area reserved for playing a game): course (for golf), court (for racquet sports), ground, pitch (for soccer, rugby, cricket)
(location for the input of information): input field, box
hypernyms
(algebra): Euclidean domain ⊂ principal ideal domain ⊂ unique factorization domain, Noetherian domain ⊂ integral domain ⊂ commutative ring; simple ring ⊂ local ring
hyponyms
(algebra): ordered field, Pythagorean field, residue field, extension field
verb
field (third-person singular simple present fields, present participle fielding, simple past and past participle fielded)
(transitive, sports) To intercept or catch (a ball) and play it.
(intransitive, baseball, softball, cricket, and other batting sports) To be the team catching and throwing the ball, as opposed to hitting it.
(transitive, sports) To place (a team, its players, etc.) in a game.
(transitive) To answer; to address.
(transitive) To defeat.
(transitive) To execute research (in the field).
(transitive, military) To deploy in the field.
Examples
The blue team are fielding first, while the reds are batting.
The away team fielded two new players and the second-choice goalkeeper.
On balance, it was harsh on Hearts, who had given as good as they got against their more-fancied opponents, who, despite not being at full strength, fielded a multi-million pound team.
She will field questions immediately after her presentation.
They fielded a fearsome army.
He fielded the marketing survey about the upcoming product.
to field a new land-mine detector
Related words
synonyms
(intercept or catch (a ball) and play it):
(place a team in (a game)):
(answer, address): address, answer, deal with, respond to
antonyms
(antonym(s) of "be the team throwing and catching the ball"): bat