fields

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of field.

   Cattle grazed across the open fields beyond the river.

   Her research bridges two fields that rarely overlap.

   Note

   The plural does more than count. For the open country around a town, English normally uses the plural already: a walk out into the fields means the countryside at large, not a tally of fenced plots. When it does count, it can count farmland, mineral regions or airstrips, and the same regular -s form serves each one.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of field.

   The spokesperson fields tough questions at every press conference.

   A good second baseman fields ground balls cleanly under pressure.

   Note

   A verb form that nearly always wants an object: a shortstop fields the ball, a coach fields a side, a press secretary fields questions. The exception is the team doing the catching and throwing rather than the hitting, as in "the home team fields first," where it stands alone. When an object follows, check whether it is a ball, a team or a question, because each one brings its own meaning.

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