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}.
Note: 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.
{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} (Zo["o]l.), 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} (Zo["o]l.), 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}. (Zo["o]l.)
(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 mouse} (Zo["o]l.), a mouse inhabiting fields, as the
campagnol and the deer mouse. See {Campagnol}, and {Deer
mouse}.
{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} (Zo["o]l.), the black-bellied plover
({Charadrius squatarola}); also sometimes applied to the
Bartramian sandpiper ({Bartramia longicauda}).
{Field spaniel} (Zo["o]l.), a small spaniel used in hunting
small game.
{Field sparrow}. (Zo["o]l.)
(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} (Zo["o]l.), 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, or back}, {against the field}, to bet on (a horse,
etc.) against all comers.
{To take the field} (Mil.), to enter upon a campaign.
2. (Ball Playing) To stand out in the field, ready to catch,
stop, or throw the ball.
As swift as a pellet out of a gunne When fire is in
the powder runne. --Chaucer.
The word gun was in use in England for an engine to
cast a thing from a man long before there was any
gunpowder found out. --Selden.
2. (Mil.) A piece of heavy ordnance; in a restricted sense, a
cannon.
3. pl. (Naut.) Violent blasts of wind.
Note: Guns are classified, according to their construction or
manner of loading as {rifled} or {smoothbore},
{breech-loading} or {muzzle-loading}, {cast} or
{built-up guns}; or according to their use, as {field},
{mountain}, {prairie}, {seacoast}, and {siege guns}.
{Armstrong gun}, a wrought iron breech-loading cannon named
after its English inventor, Sir William Armstrong.
{Great gun}, a piece of heavy ordnance; hence (Fig.), a
person superior in any way.
{Gun barrel}, the barrel or tube of a gun.
{Gun carriage}, the carriage on which a gun is mounted or
moved.
{Gun cotton} (Chem.), a general name for a series of
explosive nitric ethers of cellulose, obtained by steeping
cotton in nitric and sulphuric acids. Although there are
formed substances containing nitric acid radicals, yet the
results exactly resemble ordinary cotton in appearance. It
burns without ash, with explosion if confined, but quietly
and harmlessly if free and open, and in small quantity.
Specifically, the lower nitrates of cellulose which are
insoluble in ether and alcohol in distinction from the
highest (pyroxylin) which is soluble. See {Pyroxylin}, and
cf. {Xyloidin}. The gun cottons are used for blasting and
somewhat in gunnery: for making celluloid when compounded
with camphor; and the soluble variety (pyroxylin) for
making collodion. See {Celluloid}, and {Collodion}. Gun
cotton is frequenty but improperly called nitrocellulose.
It is not a nitro compound, but an ethereal salt of nitric
acid.
{Gun fire}, the time at which the morning or the evening gun
is fired.
{Gun metal}, a bronze, ordinarily composed of nine parts of
copper and one of tin, used for cannon, etc. The name is
also given to certain strong mixtures of cast iron.
{Gun port} (Naut.), an opening in a ship through which a
cannon's muzzle is run out for firing.
{Gun tackle} (Naut.), the blocks and pulleys affixed to the
side of a ship, by which a gun carriage is run to and from
the gun port.
{Gun tackle purchase} (Naut.), a tackle composed of two
single blocks and a fall. --Totten.
{Krupp gun}, a wrought steel breech-loading cannon, named
after its German inventor, Herr Krupp.
{Machine gun}, a breech-loading gun or a group of such guns,
mounted on a carriage or other holder, and having a
reservoir containing cartridges which are loaded into the
gun or guns and fired in rapid succession, sometimes in
volleys, by machinery operated by turning a crank. Several
hundred shots can be fired in a minute with accurate aim.
The {Gatling gun}, {Gardner gun}, {Hotchkiss gun}, and
{Nordenfelt gun}, named for their inventors, and the
French {mitrailleuse}, are machine guns.
{To blow great guns} (Naut.), to blow a gale. See {Gun}, n.,
3.