open fieldn.adj.
/ˌəʊp(ə)n ˈfiːld/, U.S. /ˌoʊp(ə)n ˈfild/ (in sense B.)Brit. /ˈəʊp(ə)n ˌfiːld/, U.S. /ˈoʊp(ə)n ˈfild/ A. n.
1.
a. Military. A battlefield allowing unrestricted passage in all directions, as opposed to a situation in which one side is defending a stronghold. Frequently in in (the) open field. Now chiefly historical.Sometimes having the implication that combat fought in the open field is fairer and more honourable.
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society > armed hostility > armed encounter > battlefield > [noun]
fieldeOE
place?c1225
fletc1275
champ of battlec1300
champany?a1400
o laundon?a1400
palaestrac1425
battle-stead1487
fighting-stead1487
open fielda1500
spear-field1508
joining-place1513
camp1525
foughten field1569
battleground1588
Aceldama1607
champian?1611
field of honour1611
champaign1614
standing ground1662
fighting-field1676
battlefield1715
a1500 (?c1450) Merlin xxxiii. 183 The King..fought often with the enemy in the open field.
1551 R. Robinson tr. T. More Vtopia sig. Rii Whiles ye armes be fighting together in open feld, they a litle beside not farre of knele vpon their knees.
1645 H. Burkhead Cola's Fvrie v. 51 We need not urge them to an open field for so it might prove dangerous, our men..are..much weakened.
1697 J. Dryden tr. Virgil Æneis ix, in tr. Virgil Wks. 488 Twice Conquer'd Cowards, now your shame is shown—..Who dare not issue forth in open Field, But hold your Walls before you for a Shield.
1769 O. Goldsmith Rom. Hist. II. 498 The senate dispatched their ambassadors to Alarick, desiring him..to give them leave to fight it with him, in the open field.
1823 W. Scott Quentin Durward III. xiv. 333 Draw in within the court-yard—they are too many to mell with in the open field.
1896 C. G. D. Roberts Forge in Forest xx. 266 For my own part I liked little this plan of a night attack; for I love a fair defiance and an open field.
1950 O. J. M. Jolles tr. K. von Clausewitz On War viii. 195 Among the ancients everything was arranged with a view to measuring each other's strength in the open field, free from anything in the nature of a hindrance.
2003 Morning Star (Wilmington, N. Carolina) (Nexis) 8 Apr. 1 a In the open field, advancing U.S. forces have engaged in firefights or skirmishes rather than pitched large-unit battles.
b. figurative. A lack of opposition or competition; an unrestricted or unchallenged opportunity.
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1691 N. Tate Char. of Vertue & Vice 14 To Friendship's Entrance [he] leaves an open Field.
1781 S. Johnson Pope in Pref. Wks. Eng. Poets VII. 153 Pope's literary excellence had an open field; he had no English rival, living or dead.
1876 H. James Roderick Hudson xiii. 464 When I have kept myself in durance on purpose to leave you an open field, don't..come and call me an idiot.
1909 Catholic Encycl. V. 261/2 The comparative lack of important architectural monuments of an earlier date left them..a more open field for their inventive enterprise.
1955 N. Coward Diary 10 Nov. (2000) 291 This malignant, cretinous decision by the English magistrates will..provide an open field for blackmail and unending persecution.
1994 Variety (Nexis) 26 Sept. 1 Recent movement had given open fields to Miramax's ‘Highlander III’ and Paramount's ‘I.Q.’
2. An unenclosed field; spec. a field of arable land without physical division by hedges, ditches, etc., used in common rather than by one owner. Also: arable land of this type. Now chiefly historical.The adoption of the open-field system of agriculture in England is generally held to have taken place between the 9th and 12th centuries; see H. P. R. Finberg Agrarian Hist. Eng. & Wales (1972) I. 385–525; T. Rowley Origins Open-field Agric. (1981); C. C. Taylor Fields in Eng. Landscape (rev. ed., 2000) 47–70.
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the world > food and drink > farming > farm > farmland > [noun] > common or unenclosed land
lea805
leasea1000
green1190
common1377
tye1407
common field1523
champaign1555
commons1583
champian1611
commonage1635
commoninga1661
open1733
open field1762
mark1849
veld1852
scat-field1881
stray1889
the world > food and drink > farming > farm > farmland > land suitable for cultivation > [noun] > broken land > arable or ploughed land > undivided arable
open field1762
1762 Gentleman's Mag. June 261/1 It has long been a custom in Britany, to sow parsneps in the open fields, for the use of cattle.
1788 T. Jefferson Let. 3 Mar. in Papers (1956) XIII. 15 I see many walnut trees to-day in the open fields.
1877 E. Peacock Gloss. Words Manley & Corringham, Lincs. Furlong, the road or boundary upon which the separate lots abut in an ‘open field’ or piece of unenclosed ground divided into several occupations.
1884 F. Seebohm Eng. Village Community (ed. 3) i. 8 Under the English system the open fields were the common fields—the arable land—of a village community or township under a manorial lordship.
1900 E. Jenks Hist. Politics (ed. 2) vi. 50 There were practically no hedges in the medieval village. The arable land of the village lay in great open fields, many hundreds of acres in extent.
1962 Agric. Hist. Rev. 10 28/1 Open fields were not always commonable.
1991 Hist. & Computing 3 23/2 Most tithe maps distinguish carefully between open and enclosed fields, demarcating them with broken and solid lines respectively.
B. adj. Frequently in form open-field.
1. Of, designating, or relating to a system of agriculture characterized by open fields. Now historical.
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the world > food and drink > farming > cultivation or tillage > [adjective] > systems of cultivation
Virgilian1724
open field1728
three-field1869
intercultural1878
no-tillage1911
monocultural1915
polycultural1915
monoculture1933
slash-and-burn1942
slashed and burnt1949
1728 Stamford Mercury 1 Feb. 39/1 To be Sold..Two open Field Farms.
1780 A. Young Tour Ireland 130 The mischiefs of our open field system in England.
1808 R. Forsyth Beauties Scotl. V. 220 Land inclosed and subdivided is reckoned worth from a fourth to one-half more rent than in an open-field state.
1884 F. Seebohm Eng. Village Community (ed. 3) i. 7 The most..important feature of the open field system..is the fact that..the several holdings were made up of a multitude of strips scattered about on all sides of the township.
1927 Dict. National Biogr. 1912–21 at Seebohm, Frederic The communism of the open-field villages was derived from the fact that the labouring population was by custom subjected to the exploitation of lords who here endowed with rights of individual property.
1952 G. H. Dury Map Interpr. xi. 106 In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries openfield working was finally superseded by wholesale enclosures.
1991 N.Y. Rev. Bks. 13 June 45/1 The life of the villager under the open field system of agriculture and his relations with his manorial lord have been described often.
2. American Football. Of or relating to a field on which the players are widely distributed. Hence of a player: active in the area of the field beyond the line of defence in which the defenders are spread widely apart.
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society > leisure > sport > types of sport or game > ball game > characteristics of team ball games > [adjective] > part of playing area
midfield1896
open field1905
upfield1960
1905 F. H. Yost Football for Player & Spectator 106 A combination of the line-plunging and open-field holds of the ball is desirable.
1935 Collier's 9 Nov. 17/2 Beise was the more finished performer and the best open-field blocker on the squad.
1996 Asbury Park Press (Neptune, New Jersey) (Nexis) 8 Feb. c6 Coach Majors has made the comment after watching Aamir on film, that he is the best open-field runner he has seen since..1976.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2004; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.adj.a1500