[f. FIELD sb. + WORK.]
1. Work done in the field or in the fields.
1777. W. Robertson, Hist. Amer. (1783), III. 277. Even in Peru, where negroes seem to be more numerous, and are employed in field-work as well as domestic service, they maintain their ascendant over the Indians, and the mutual hatred of one to the other subsists with equal violence.
1834. J. S. Macaulay, A Treatise on Field Fortification, 229. It is presumed that the beginner in field-sketching has already learned to copy plans, and can use his pencil and pen freely in describing ground. He should commence his field-work in a road, near the banks of a stream, outline of a wood, or any other remarkable feature.
1844. Marg. Fuller, Wom. 19th. C. (1862), 35. Those who think the physical circumstances of Woman would make a part in the affairs of national government unsuitable, are by no means those who think it impossible for negresses to endure field-work, even during pregnancy, or for sempstresses to go through their killing labors.
1856. Kane, Arct. Expl., I. x. 109. Mr. Kennedy is, I believe, the only one of my predecessors who has used October and November for Arctic field-work.
1891. N. Crane, Baseball, vi. 43. There is no department of the game so full of life, activity, and interest to the player as field-work.
2. Mil. A temporary work or fortification thrown up by troops operating in the field.
1819. Rees, Cycl., XIV. Field-works are rarely constructed in a durable manner; they are for the most part formed by the excavation of the soil, correspond in figure with the parapet to be formed, and, from the resemblance of the ditch, are called trenches.
1834. J. S. Macaulay, A Treatise on Field Fortification, 160. The manner of attacking field-works is very different from that employed in the attack of fortresses.
