debris field
11
6.4
- noun
- /dɪˈbriː fild/
- State and local police are patrolling the debris fields and conducting house-to-house searches for bodies, shutting off gas mains, identifying downed power lines, etc.
- a huge debris field
- a large debris field
- a wide debris field
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Watch on YouTubeAnd he explains there's, there's a whole, you know, huge debris field of it on my ranch.
- And he explains there's, there's a whole, you know, huge debris field of it on my ranch.
- Now, you could use a nuclear weapon and detonate that and then run people through the debris field, run people through the blast.
Examples
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Let's get you through this debris field.
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Mmm, we're flying through the old Mothership's debris field.
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And then you have a debris field between those two.
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We need to get clear of the debris field.
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We're in a debris field.
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Captain, before you launch, you should be aware there is a considerable debris field between our ships.
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It took some time to make the journey down through the debris field and into the upper atmosphere.
Fiction book (1991) -
We'll search every square inch of this debris field until we come up with a clue.
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On-camera: This is a strange, eerie experience, walking through the debris field of a passenger jet.
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You can tell by the debris field here he hit real hard and it spread.
Synonyms
263
4.1
Scattered broken pieces left after something is destroyed
133
3.2
Broken pieces of stone or brick left after a building is destroyed
116
3.6
Broken parts that remain after something is badly damaged
9
8.2
Loose bits of waste and broken things left after damage or natural events
1
6.5
A wide area that is badly damaged, often by war or natural disaster
How Widespread
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly compositional: combining 'debris' (remains/wreckage) with 'field' (an area of ground) yields an area covered with scattered wreckage. This noun+noun compound follows a common descriptive pattern found across languages, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents can readily infer the MWE meaning.
Etymology
The noun debris field comes from the simple picture of a 'field' covered with debris—many broken bits and wreckage scattered after a crash, explosion, or storm. So, debris field means 'an area covered with scattered wreckage'.