broken field

plural broken fields

1. American footballA field in which there are defensive players from the other team between the player who has the ball and the goal.

   Quarter-backs this year who have gained considerable notice are Fallis of Haskell Indians and Pooler of Kansas University, they both being very good in a broken field.

   1905, Spalding's Official Foot Ball Guide, page 169

   2 more examples

   The forward passer receives the ball, runs a yard or two as a feint, and then, with scarcely a look over the broken field, selects a person and a place and throws the ball.

   1972, Chronicle of American Physical Education, page 383

   Barely two minutes after the interval the margin was reduced to just a single point after Elliot Daly, under a bit of pressure, knocked on 40 metres from his own line and gave the Wallabies a broken field to play with.

   2019 October 19, Robert Kitson, “England into World Cup semi-finals after bruising victory over Australia”, in The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media

2. agricultureA field that has been plowed.

   My soul is a broken field Ploughed by pain

   1916, Sara Teasdale, “The Broken Field”, in George Park Fisher, George Burton Adams, Henry Walcott Farnam, editors, The Yale Review, page 755

   1 more example

   The birds are gregarious even during the nesting season, and in spring and summer seem to be equally busy “ ploughing up ” the earth in the already broken field with their long, crowlike bills; naturally such action creates trouble with the farmer, but on the whole, an examination of the constituents of the bird's diet, shows that he is a greater insect destroyer than a crop destroyer.

   1906, Ferdinand Schuyler Mathews, Field Book of Wild Birds and Their Music, page 72