adv. [ Pref. a- + field. ] 1. To, in, or on the field. “We drove afield.” Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

How jocund did they drive their team afield! Gray. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Out of the way; astray. [ 1913 Webster ]

Why should he wander afield at the age of fifty-five! Trollope. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. 1 a place where planes take off and land; an airport; -- usually used of airports other than those with regularly sheduled commercial flights, such as those at military bases or small fields for private aircraft.
Syn. -- landing field, flying field, field [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. a region where a battle is fought.
Syn. -- battleground, field of battle, field. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. a place where bricks are made and sold.
Syn. -- brickyard. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. [ Australia ] 1. Orig., at Sydney, a cold and violent south or southwest wind, rising suddenly, and regularly preceded by a hot wind from the north; -- now usually called southerly buster. It blew across the Brickfields, formerly so called, a district of Sydney, and carried clouds of dust into the city. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

2. By confusion, a midsummer hot wind from the north. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

pos>n. (Baseball) The part of the outfield directly ahead of the catcher.
Syn. -- center. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. 1. a davenport with upright armrests. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

2. a fitted overcoat with a velvet collar. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. A field where corn is or has been growing; -- in England, a field of wheat, rye, barley, or oats; in America, a field of Indian corn. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. a European annual (Agrostemma githago) having large trumpet-shaped reddish-purple flowers and poisonous seed; a common weed in grainfields and beside roadways; naturalized in America.
Syn. -- corn cockle, corncockle, corn-cockle, corn campion, Agrostemma githago. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

v. t. (Ball Playing) To catch, stop, throw, etc. (the ball), as a fielder. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. [ imp. & p. p. Fielded; p. pr. & vb. n. Fielding. ] 1. To take the field. [ Obs. ] Spenser. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Ball Playing) To stand out in the field, ready to catch, stop, or throw the ball. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A piece of land of considerable size; esp., a piece inclosed for tillage or pasture. [ 1913 Webster ]

Fields which promise corn and wine. Byron. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. A place where a battle is fought; also, the battle itself. [ 1913 Webster ]

In this glorious and well-foughten field. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

What though the field be lost? Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster + PJC ]

Without covering, save yon field of stars. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

Ask of yonder argent fields above. Pope. [ 1913 Webster ]

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). [ 1913 Webster ]

6. An unresticted or favorable opportunity for action, operation, or achievement; province; room. [ 1913 Webster ]

Afforded a clear field for moral experiments. Macaulay. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ PJC ]

8. Specifically: (Baseball) That part of the grounds reserved for the players which is outside of the diamond; -- called also outfield. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ WordNet 1.6 ]

10. A facility having an airstrip where airplanes can take off and land; an airfield.
Syn. -- airfield, landing field, flying field, aerodrome. [ WordNet 1.6 ]

11. A collective term for all the competitors in any outdoor contest or trial, or for all except the favorites in the betting. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ WordNet 1.6 ]

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. [ PJC ]

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. [ WordNet 1.6 ]

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. [ PJC ]

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. [ WordNet 1.6 ]

☞ 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. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Engaged in the field; encamped. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

To help fielded friends. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Consisting of fields. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

The fielden country also and plains. Holland. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Ball Playing) A ball payer who stands out in the field to catch or stop balls. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ OE. feldfare, AS. feldfare; field + faran to travel. ] (Zool.) a small thrush (Turdus pilaris) which breeds in northern Europe and winters in Great Britain. The head, nape, and lower part of the back are ash-colored; the upper part of the back and wing coverts, chestnut; -- called also fellfare. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Ball Playing) The act of playing as a fielder. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. (Zool.) any nocturnal Old World mouse of the genus Apodemus inhabing woods and fields and gardens. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

2. (Zool.) any mouse inhabiting fields, as the campagnol and the deer mouse. See Campagnol, and Deer mouse. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A cannon mounted on wheels, for the use of a marching army; a piece of field artillery; -- called also field gun. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Cricket) a member of the cricket team that is fielding rather than batting.
Syn. -- fielder. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

v. t. to test something in the field, i. e. under the actual conditions under which it will be used; as, The Army field-tested the new tanks. Used in contrast with testing in a laboratory or under controlled conditions.
Syn. -- field test. [ WordNet 1.5 +PJC ]

n. (Mil.) Any temporary fortification thrown up by an army in the field; -- commonly in the plural. [ 1913 Webster ]

All works which do not come under the head of permanent fortification are called fieldworks. Wilhelm. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Open, like a field. [ Obs. ] Wyclif. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. a district where gold is mined. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. A small slender woolly annual (Lasthenia chrysostoma) with very narrow opposite leaves and branches bearing solitary golden-yellow flower heads; it grows from Southwestern Oregon to Baja California and Arizona; -- it is often cultivated.
Syn. -- Lasthenia chrysostoma. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. A field where grain is grown. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A field where grass for hay has been cut; a meadow. Cowper. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A field adjacent to its owner's home. Hawthorne. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. To inclose, as a field. [ R. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. Arable and manured land kept continually under crop; -- distinguished from outfield. [ Scotland ] Jamieson. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Baseball) The diamond; -- opposed to outfield. See Diamond, n., 5. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Baseball) the part of the outfield on the catcher's or batter's left.
Syn. -- left. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. (Physics) The space around a magnet through which it exerts magnetic force; a field of force surrounding a permanent magnet, electrical current, or a moving charged particle; called also magnetic flux and field of magnetic force. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. The amount of magnetic flux in a unit area perpendicular to the direction of magnetic flow.
Syn. -- magnetic intensity, magnetic induction, magnetic flux density. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. (sport) the middle part of a playing field (as in football or lacrosse); as, he ran the kickoff back to midfield. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. 1. (Mil.) a region in which explosive mines{ 4 } have been placed, especially a region on land. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

2. Hence: (Fig.) A situation in which a simple mistake can have disastrous consequences; a touchy or dangerous situation requiring great caution; as, the candidate threaded his way skillfully through a minefield of loaded questions from the audience. [ PJC ]

n. 1. Arable land which has been or is being exhausted. See Infield, 1. [ Scot. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A field beyond, or separated from, the inclosed land about the homestead; an uninclosed or unexplored tract. Also used figuratively. [ 1913 Webster ]

The great outfield of thought or fact. Trench. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Baseball) The part of the baseball field beyond the diamond, or infield. It is occupied by the fielders, and usually considered as divided into left field, center field, and right field, named as viewed from home plate. [ 1913 Webster +PJC ]

4. (Cricket) The part of the field farthest from the batsman. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. (Baseball) To surpass in performing the tasks of fielding; as, both teams got ten hits, but the Red Sox outfielded the Yankees. [ PJC ]

n. 1. (baseball or softball) A person who plays in the outfield. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

2. (Cricket) A fielder in cricket who is stationed in the outfield. [ WordNet 1.5 ]