field

plural fields

1. A land area free of woodland, cities, and towns; an area of open country.

   There are several species of wild flowers growing in this field.

   1. plural normallyThe open country near or belonging to a town or city.

      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.

      1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter VIII, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC

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      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.

      1883, Anthony Trollope, Mr. Scarborough's Family, Chap. XXIV

2. A wide, open space that is used to grow crops or to hold farm animals, usually enclosed by a fence, hedge or other barrier.

   A crop circle was made in a corn field.

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   There were some cows grazing in a field.

   The castled crag of Drachenfels Frowns o’er the wide and winding Rhine Whose breast of waters broadly swells Between the banks which bear the vine And hills all rich with blossomed trees And fields which promise corn and wine And scatter’d cities crowning these Whose far white walls along them shine, Have strew’d a scene, which I should see With double joy wert thou with mo.

   1816, Lord Byron, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Canto the Third, LV

   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.”

   1927, F. E. Penny, chapter 5, in Pulling the Strings

   1. When coupled with a number (e.g. two-field) used to define types of crop rotation, denoting the number of different crop types (and possibly fallow) that are used.
3. geographyA region containing a particular mineral.

   an oil field; a gold field

4. An airfield, airport or air base; especially, one with unpaved runways.
5. A place where competitive matches are carried out.
   1. A place where a battle is fought; a battlefield.

      Tarry, sweet soul, for mine; then fly abreast, As in this glorious and well-foughten field We kept together in our chivalry!

      c. 1599, William Shakespeare, King Henry V, act IV, scene VI

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      […] 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!

      1674, John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book 1, Verses 105–110

   2. An area reserved for playing a game or race with one’s physical force.

      soccer field

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      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.

      1848, Anthony Trollope, The Kellys and the O’Kellys, Chap. III

   3. obsoleteball gamesThe team in a match that throws the ball and tries to catch it when it is hit by the other team (the bat).
   4. ball gamesThe outfield.
   5. A place where competitive matches are carried out with figures, or playing area in a board game or a computer game.
   6. A competitive situation, circumstance in which one faces conflicting moves of rivals.

      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.

      1869, Anthony Trollope, Phineas Finn, Chap. XXV

   7. metonymicallyAll of the competitors in any outdoor contest or trial, or all except the favourites in the betting.

      This racehorse is the strongest in a weak field.

6. Any of various figurative meanings, often dead metaphors.
   1. natural sciencesA physical phenomenon (such as force, potential or fluid velocity) that pervades a region; a mathematical model of such a phenomenon that associates each point and time with a scalar, vector or tensor quantity.

      magnetic field; gravitational field; scalar field

   2. The extent of a given perception.

      field of view

   3. A realm of practical, direct or natural operation, contrasted with an office, classroom, or laboratory.

      He needs some time in the field before his judgment can be trusted.

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      The design needs to be field-tested before we commit to manufacture.

      Field work traditionally distinguishes true archaeologists from armchair archaeologists.

   4. A domain of study, knowledge or practice.

      He was an expert in the field of Chinese history.

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      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.

      2013 May 10, Audrey Garric, “Urban canopies let nature bloom”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 22, page 30

      Synonyms: area, domain, sphere, realm

   5. An unrestricted or favourable opportunity for action, operation, or achievement.

      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.

      1873 May 1 – December 22 (date written), Anthony Trollope, chapter 2, in The Way We Live Now. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Chapman and Hall, […], published June 1875, →OCLC

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      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.

      1848, Thomas Macaulay, chapter IV, in The History Of England From the Accession of James II, volume 1

   6. algebraA non-zero commutative ring in which all non-zero elements are invertible; a simple commutative ring.

      The set of rational numbers, #92;mathbb#123;Q#125;, is the prototypical field.

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      Whereas a ring has three binary operators: (1) an additive operator, (2) a subtractive operator, and (3) a multiplicative operator, a field has four binary operators: the three ring binary operators and (4) a divisive operator. (N.B.: Only the additive and multiplicative operators are axiomatic. The subtractive operator may be derived by combining the additive and the unary negative operators; the divisive operator may be derived by combining the multiplicative and the unary inversive operators.)

   7. governmentThe background of the shield.

      The field of the arms (shield), which is vert (green), represents the open country of Great Britain.

      1957 February 28, “B.T.C. Armorial Bearings”, in Railway Magazine, page 81

   8. historyThe background of the flag.
   9. hobbiesThe part of a coin left unoccupied by the main device.
   10. A section of a form which is supposed to be filled with data.

       The form has fields for each element of the customer's home address and shipping address.

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       PHP 5 Forms Required Fields at W3Schools 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.

   11. A component of a database in which a single unit of information is stored.
   12. object-oriented programmingcomputingAn area of memory or storage reserved for a particular value, subject to virtual access controls.

       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.

       2007, Andrew Troelsen, Pro C# with .NET 3.0, Special Edition, page 82

   13. animationbroadcastingPart (usually one half) of a frame in an interlaced signal.
7. archaicball gamesArchaic form of fielder.

   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.

   1854, James Pycroft, The Cricket Field

present singular third person fields · participle present fielding · participle past fielded · past fielded

1. transitivehobbiesTo intercept or catch (a ball) and play it.
2. intransitiveand other batting sportsball gamesTo be the team catching and throwing the ball, as opposed to hitting it.

   The blue team are fielding first, while the reds are batting.

3. transitivehobbiesTo place (a team, its players, etc.) in a game.

   The away team fielded two new players and the second-choice goalkeeper.

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   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.

   2012 August 23, Alasdair Lamont, “Hearts 0-1 Liverpool”, in BBC Sport

4. transitiveTo answer; to address.

   She will field questions immediately after her presentation.

   Synonyms: address, answer, deal with, respond to

5. transitiveTo execute research (in the field).

   He fielded the marketing survey about the upcoming product.

6. transitivegovernmentTo deploy in the field.

   to field a new land-mine detector

alternative Feild

1. A surname.

   Her book includes an incisive discussion of misogyny on the New Right. [Laura K.] Field notes how “gynocracy” and “the longhouse” have become overwrought MAGA epithets for an unbearably feminized and pluralist society.

   2025 December 17, Jennifer Szalai, “The Intellectuals Fueling the MAGA Movement”, in The New York Times Book Review, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 17 Dec 2025

2. A community near Field Hill within Yoho National Park, British Columbia, Canada, named after Cyrus West Field.
3. A community in West Nipissing, Northeastern Ontario, Canada.
4. An unincorporated community in Bell County, Kentucky, United States.
5. A neighbourhood of Nokomis, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA.
6. A locality in Coorong council area, south-east South Australia.
7. A hamlet in Eardisley parish, Herefordshire, England (OS grid ref SO3050).
8. A neighbourhood in Shepton Mallet parish, Somerset, England, previously in Mendip district (OS grid ref ST6142).
9. A hamlet in Leigh parish, East Staffordshire district, Staffordshire, England (OS grid ref SK0233).