fieldworkn.

1441 in A. H. Thompson Visitations Relig. Houses Diocese Lincoln (1919) II. 125 That ye suffre none of your susters to go to any felde werkes.

a1450 ( tr. Vegetius De Re Militari (Douce) f. 7 Ȝif þe iourney be long..þan is it nedful to occupie hem in feld werkes.

1480 Cronicles Eng. (Caxton) ccxxxii. sig. q6 The tilthe & sowing of the erthe & othir such felde wurkes and hand werkes were moche y let & left Vn do.

?1615 G. Chapman tr. Homer Odysses (new ed.) xiv. 220 They fetcht the Field-workes of faire Ithaca.

1620 J. Sylvester All Small Workes 96 And so, his Mighty Rain; Wherby, From Field-works He seals-vp mens hands.

1738 W. Stephens Jrnl. 4 May (1742) I. 195 My principal Servant..was at such Times as I could best spare him from Field-Work, employed as a Domestick.

1777 W. Robertson Hist. Amer. (1783) III. 277 In Peru..negroes..are employed in field-work.

1845 M. Fuller Woman in 19th Cent. 24 Those who think it impossible for negresses to endure field-work.

1872 E. W. Robertson Hist. Ess. 99 The bondage-system, entailing..the necessity of finding extra labour in field work.

1891 N. Crane Baseball vi. 43 There is no department of the game so full of life..as field work.

1918 W. Cather My Ántonia i. xvii. 143 Heavy field work'll spoil that girl. She'll lose all her nice ways and get rough ones.

1959 R. K. Beardsley et al. Village Japan v. 101 For field work, women wear a surplice-cut blouse of dark cotton work cloth tucked into roomy, gathered-ankle field trousers.

2004 N.Y. Times 17 Oct. 22/1 When the draft caused a shortage of agricultural workers, the Mexican and American governments..brought Mexicans to the United States for field work.

1656 in T. A. Larcom Hist. Surv. Ireland (1851) 110 Wee have considered the ability of the persons imployed in the field worke.

1688 J. Love Geodæsia vi. 110 When you find your Field-Work true, you may lay it down upon Paper, which way you think the easiest.

a1761 R. Gibson Treat. Pract. Surv. (1767) 173 If the End of the last Station falls exactly in the Point you begin at, the Field-Work and Protraction are truly taken.

1834 J. S. Macaulay Treat. Field Fortification 229 The beginner in field-sketching..should commence his field-work in a road.

1856 E. K. Kane Arctic Explor. I. x. 109 Mr. Kennedy..used October and November for Arctic field-work.

1901 Daily Colonist (Victoria, Brit. Columbia) 16 Oct. 5/3 Mr. Carry, who conducted the survey from the summit westward, returned from the Mainland on Monday night, having completed the field work.

1996 Canad. Geographic Nov. 102/1 (advt.) Accurate digital maps prepared from air photos and GPS field work.

1686 R. Blome Gentlemans Recreation x. 183/1 Redoubts, Triangles, Squares, and other Field-Works upon the Line, to Flank and Defend it.

1779 G. Smith Universal Mil. Dict. Field-Fortification, is the art of fortifying, constructing, attacking, and defending, all sorts of temporary field-works during a campaign.

1819 A. Rees Cycl. XIV Field-works are..for the most part, formed by the excavation of the soil.

1834 J. S. Macaulay Treat. Field Fortification 160 The manner of attacking field-works is very different from that employed in the attack of fortresses.

1879 Times 17 Apr. 6/1 Colonel Pearson has still a garrison of over 1,100 men, chiefly Europeans, to defend an excellent field work, the perimeter of which does not exceed 450 yards.

1918 E. S. Farrow Dict. Mil. Terms 629 Trench system, all the field-works included in a defense zone.

1944 Pop. Sci. Monthly 145 124 (caption) High-explosive shell against personnel with cover, and against field works.

2005 E. J. Hess Field Armies & Fortifications in Civil War 228 Fully intending to drive the Yankees from their position, no other Confederates seem to have constructed fieldworks of any kind that day.

1887 Contemp. Rev. 51 562 It is a new doctrine that the most meritorious field-work will make a man a linguist, an epigrapher, and an historian.

1898 Ann. Announcement Courses Univ. Calif. 101 Theoretical study will be more fully illustrated by continuous fieldwork than it can be during the regular University term.

1930 Economist 24 May 1159/2 He not only played his part in shaping the organisation, but he also did what might be termed important field work for it.

1940 Mind 49 64 He does not sit all day in his arm-chair, he spends at least part of his time in observational field-work.

1971 Observer 1 Aug. 26/8 In the 1930s Jacques Soustelle did some very fine anthropological and archaeological field-work in Mexico.

2003 Canad. Geographic Jan. 9/2 To do geography without doing fieldwork is a wasted opportunity.