Definition of "in the field"

in the field

prepositional phrase
1. (military) Actively engaged in fighting or dealing with the enemy; in battle or on maneuvers.
  Quotations
  An English medical officer has described an apparatus for the generation of chlorine gas which was used for sterilization of water in the field.
  1917, The Military Surgeon, page 402
  Even if the Soviets do not intend to use chemical weapons unless they are first attacked themselves by poisonous gas, it is inconceivable that such munitions would not be available in the field.
  1987, Radio Free Europe Research - Volume 12, Issues 13-21, page 18
  Running short after a couple of chaotic days in the field, Hamer hoped to have the batteries by nightfall, when the company would need them the most.
  2017, Warren K. Wilkins, Nine Days in May, page 261
  Set against the level of their activity in the field, the companies would argue that such losses were a small percentage of the people notionally at risk.
  2009, Tony Geraghty, Soldiers of Fortune, page 188
2. Away from the office, classroom, or laboratory; working with people or things in their natural environment.
  Quotations
  In 1915 the average county agent spent 152 days in the field and 140 days in the office.
  1921, W.A. Lloyd, Status and Results of County Agent Work: Northern and Western States: 1921, page 15
  Acknowledgment is also made of the assistance of Professor B. F. Howell, who spent several days in the field with the writer while work was being done on the Paleozoic rocks and who helped with that part of the report.
  1934, Arthur Francis Buddington, Rudolf Ruedemann, Geology and Mineral Resources of the Hammond, Antwerp and Lowville Quadrangles, page 6
  We have found, and the men and women working in the field out of the unit offices will tell you, that the visits to the homes, the discussion of the problems of the child with the parents are the conditions which bring about a better relation of the Department with the father and mother, and result in a great many immediate adjustments.
  1941, Criminal Law Enforcement in the City of New York, page 91
  Telephones may also be "patched" into radio transmissions through the base station, enabling, for example, communication between paramedics using radios in the field and a physician using his or her telephone at home.
  1995, Nancy L. Caroline, Emergency Care in the Streets, page 930
3. In a real-world setting, as opposed to the controlled conditions of a laboratory or the hypothesized parameters of a theoretical approach.
  Quotations
  Taking not of Becker's injunction that 'methodology is too important to be left to methodologists' (Becker, 1970b, p. 3) the focus will be upon the problems that confront the researcher in the field.
  2002, Robert G. Burgess, In the Field: An Introduction to Field Research
  Even though during the course of the present study we succeeded in eliminating ettringite formation and subsequent heave by the use of barium pretreatment agents, we could not develop quantitative relationships that could be used if the proposed pretreatment technology is to be applied in the field.
  1995 October 10, Dmitris Dermatas, “Ettringite-Induced Swelling in Soils:State-of-the-art”, in Applied Mechanics Reviews, volume 48, number 10, page 8077
  Thus, it is our responsibility as scientists to make practitioners aware of the fact that most of the current findings in social psychology concerning conflict-related interventions were not rigorously tested in the field (Paluck and Green 2009), and convey the importance of conducting an RCT in the field before moving forward to full implementation.
  2020, Yasemin Gülsüm Acar, Sigrun Marie Moss, Özden Melis Uluğ, Researching Peace, Conflict, and Power in the Field, page 227
4. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see in,‎ field.
  Quotations
  The hand is held as with a single rein, with the thumb pointing to the horse's ears; in turning, however, there is much less power of bear on either side of the bit by raising the thumb or lowering the little finger, because the distance between the snaffle-reins is only half what it was, and therefore the mode of turning by pressure upon the neck is doubly desirable; and hence its general adoption in those cases where doulbe-reined bridles are used, as in the field and on the road.
  1861, John Henry Walsh, James Irvine Lupton, The Horse, in the Stable and the Field, page 291
  The latter three chapters are memoirs by or about a variety of people who have participated significantly in the field – as teachers, students, and professionals whose careers were bolstered by their acquired Chinese language competence.
  2018, Vivian Ling, The Field of Chinese Language Education in the U.S.