1. an expanse of open or cleared ground, especially a piece of land suitable or used for pasture or tillage.
2. Sports.
• a piece of ground devoted to sports or contests; playing field.
• (in betting) all the contestants or numbers that are grouped together as one: to bet on the field in a horse race.
• (in football) the players on the playing ground.
• the area in which field events are held.
3. Baseball.
• the team in the field, as opposed to the one at bat.
• the outfield.
4. a sphere of activity, interest, etc., especially within a particular business or profession: the field of teaching;the field of Shakespearean scholarship.
5. the area or region drawn on or serviced by a business or profession; outlying areas where business activities or operations are carried on, as opposed to a home or branch office: our representatives in the field.
6. a job location remote from regular workshop facilities, offices, or the like.
7. Military.
• the scene or area of active military operations.
• a battleground.
• a battle.
• an area located away from the headquarters of a commander.
8. an expanse of anything: a field of ice.
9. any region characterized by a particular feature, resource, activity, etc.: a gold field.
10. the surface of a canvas, shield, etc., on which something is portrayed: a gold star on a field of blue.
11. (in a flag) the ground of each division.
12. the influence of some agent, as electricity or gravitation, considered as existing at all points in space and defined by the force it would exert on an object placed at any point in space.
13. the entire angular expanse visible through an optical instrument, such as the lens of a camera, microscope, or telescope, at a given time.
14. the area of a subject that is taken in by a lens at a particular diaphragm opening.
15. the structure in a generator or motor that produces a magnetic field around a rotating armature.
16. a number system that has the same properties relative to the operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division as the number system of all real numbers; a commutative division ring. Abbreviation: F
17. the total complex of interdependent factors within which a psychological event occurs and is perceived as occurring.
18. Computers.
• one or more related characters treated as a unit and constituting part of a record, for purposes of input, processing, output, or storage by a computer: If the hours-worked field is blank or zero, the program does not write a check for that employee.
• (in a punch card) any number of columns regularly used for recording the same information.
19. one half of the scanning lines required to form a complete television frame. In the United States, two fields are displayed in 1/30 second: all the odd-numbered lines in one field and all the even lines in the next field.
20. the blank area of a coin, other than that of the exergue.
21. the group of participants in a hunt, exclusive of the master of foxhounds and his staff.
22. the whole area or background of an escutcheon.

23. Baseball, Cricket.
• to catch or pick up (the ball) in play: The shortstop fielded the grounder and threw to first for the out.
• to place (a player, group of players, or a team) in the field to play.
24. to place in competition: to field a candidate for governor.
25. to answer or reply skillfully: to field a difficult question.
26. to put into action or on duty: to field police cars to patrol an area.
27. field-test.

28. to act as a fielder; field the ball.
29. to take to the field.

30. Sports.
• of, taking place, or competed for on the field and not on the track, as the discus throw or shot put.
• of or relating to field events.
31. of or relating to campaign and active combat service as distinguished from service in rear areas or at headquarters: a field soldier.
32. of or relating to a field.
33. grown or cultivated in a field.
34. working in the fields of a farm: field laborers.
35. working as a salesperson, engineer, representative, etc., in the field: an insurance company's field agents.

36. in the field,
• in actual use or in a situation simulating actual use or application; away from a laboratory, workshop, or the like:The machine was tested for six months in the field.
• in contact with a prime source of basic data: The anthropologist is working in the field in Nigeria.
• within a given profession: The public knows little of him, but in the field he's known as a fine mathematician.
37. to remain in competition or in battle; continue to contend: The troops kept the field under heavy fire.
38. left field (def. 3).
39. play the field, Informal.
• to date a number of persons rather than only one: He wanted to play the field for a few years before settling down.
• to vary one's activities.
40. take the field,
• to begin to play, as in football or baseball; go into action.
• to go into battle: They took the field at dawn.

1. U.S. financier: projector of the first Atlantic cable.
2. U.S. jurist (brother of Cyrus West and Stephen Johnson Field).
3. U.S. painter.
4. U.S. poet and journalist.
5. Irish pianist and composer.
6. U.S. merchant and philanthropist.
7. U.S. jurist: associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court 1863–97 (brother of Cyrus West and David Dudley Field, Jr.).

1. an open tract of uncultivated grassland; meadow
2. a piece of land cleared of trees and undergrowth, usually enclosed with a fence or hedge and used for pasture or growing crops
3. a limited or marked off area, usually of mown grass, on which any of various sports, athletic competitions, etc, are held
4. an area that is rich in minerals or other natural resources
5. short for battlefield, airfield
6. the mounted followers that hunt with a pack of hounds
• all the runners in a particular race or competitors in a competition
• the runners in a race or competitors in a competition excluding the favourite
8. the fielders collectively, esp with regard to their positions
9. a wide or open expanse
• an area of human activity
• a sphere or division of knowledge, interest, etc
• a place away from the laboratory, office, library, etc, usually out of doors, where practical work is done or original material or data collected
• (as modifier)
12. the surface or background, as of a flag, coin, or heraldic shield, on which a design is displayed
13. the area within which an object may be observed with a telescope, microscope, etc
14. physics
• See field of force
• a region of space that is a vector field
• a region of space under the influence of some scalar quantity, such as temperature
15. a set of entities subject to two binary operations, addition and multiplication, such that the set is a commutative group under addition and the set, minus the zero, is a commutative group under multiplication and multiplication is distributive over addition
16. the set of elements that are either arguments or values of a function; the union of its domain and range
17. computing
• a set of one or more characters comprising a unit of information
• a predetermined section of a record
18. one of two or more sets of scanning lines which when interlaced form the complete picture
19. the open country
20. to maintain one's position in the face of opposition
21. in the field
• in an area in which operations are in progress
• actively or closely involved with or working on something (rather than being in a more remote or administrative position)
22. to be in the leading or most pre-eminent position
23. to back out of a competition, contest, etc
24. to begin or carry on activity, esp in sport or military operations
25. to disperse one's interests or attentions among a number of activities, people, or objects
26. of or relating to equipment, personnel, etc, specifically designed or trained for operations in the field

27. to stop, catch, or return (the ball) as a fielder
28. to send (a player or team) onto the field to play
29. (of a player or team) to act or take turn as a fielder or fielders
30. to put (an army, a unit, etc) in the field
31. to enter (a person) in a competition
32. to deal with or handle, esp adequately and by making a reciprocal gesture

1. John . 1782–1837, Irish composer and pianist, lived in Russia from 1803: invented the nocturne

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