field Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun a piece of land cleared of trees and usually enclosed
    • he planted a field of wheat
  2. noun a region where a battle is being (or has been) fought
    battlefield; battleground; field of battle; field of honor.
    • they made a tour of Civil War battlefields
  3. noun somewhere (away from a studio or office or library or laboratory) where practical work is done or data is collected
    • anthropologists do much of their work in the field
  4. noun a branch of knowledge
    discipline; subject field; field of study; study; subject area; bailiwick; subject.
    • in what discipline is his doctorate?
    • teachers should be well trained in their subject
    • anthropology is the study of human beings
  5. noun the space around a radiating body within which its electromagnetic oscillations can exert force on another similar body not in contact with it
    force field; field of force.
  6. noun a particular kind of commercial enterprise
    line of business; field of operation.
    • they are outstanding in their field
  7. noun a particular environment or walk of life
    arena; domain; sphere; area; orbit.
    • his social sphere is limited
    • it was a closed area of employment
    • he's out of my orbit
  8. noun a piece of land prepared for playing a game
    playing field; athletic field; playing area.
    • the home crowd cheered when Princeton took the field
  9. noun extensive tract of level open land
    plain; champaign.
    • they emerged from the woods onto a vast open plain
    • he longed for the fields of his youth
  10. noun (mathematics) a set of elements such that addition and multiplication are commutative and associative and multiplication is distributive over addition and there are two elements 0 and 1
    • the set of all rational numbers is a field
  11. noun a region in which active military operations are in progress
    theater; theatre of operations; theatre; field of operations; theater of operations.
    • the army was in the field awaiting action
    • he served in the Vietnam theater for three years
  12. noun all of the horses in a particular horse race
  13. noun all the competitors in a particular contest or sporting event
  14. noun a geographic region (land or sea) under which something valuable is found
    • the diamond fields of South Africa
  15. noun (computer science) a set of one or more adjacent characters comprising a unit of information
  16. noun the area that is visible (as through an optical instrument)
    field of view.
  17. noun a place where planes take off and land
    airfield; flying field; landing field.
  18. verb catch or pick up (balls) in baseball or cricket
  19. verb play as a fielder
  20. verb answer adequately or successfully
    • The lawyer fielded all questions from the press
  21. verb select (a team or individual player) for a game
    • The Buckeyes fielded a young new quarterback for the Rose Bowl

WordNet

Field noun
Etymology
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.
Definitions
  1. Cleared land; land suitable for tillage or pasture; cultivated ground; the open country.
  2. A piece of land of considerable size; esp., a piece inclosed for tillage or pasture.
    Fields which promise corn and wine. Byron.
  3. A place where a battle is fought; also, the battle itself.
    In this glorious and well-foughten field. Shak.
    What though the field be lost? Milton.
  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.
    Without covering, save yon field of stars. Shak.
    Ask of yonder argent fields above. Pope.
  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).
  6. An unresticted or favorable opportunity for action, operation, or achievement; province; room.
    Afforded a clear field for moral experiments. Macaulay.
  7. A collective term for all the competitors in any outdoor contest or trial, or for all except the favorites in the betting.
  8. (Baseball) That part of the grounds reserved for the players which is outside of the diamond; -- called also outfield. ✍ 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., measurment, 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.
Field intransitive verb
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Fielded; present participle & verbal noun Fielding
Definitions
  1. To take the field. Obs. Spenser.
  2. (Ball Playing) To stand out in the field, ready to catch, stop, or throw the ball.
Field transitive verb
Definitions
  1. (Ball Playing) To catch, stop, throw, etc. (the ball), as a fielder.

Webster 1913