left field
5
7.4
- noun
- /lɛft fiːld/
- Informal
:
fuera de lo común
- The comedian's joke about space travel was so out of left field that it caught the audience off guard.
- comes out of left field
- totally out of left field
- way out of left field
So just saying, wow, OK, sorry, this is coming out of left field.
- So just saying, wow, OK, sorry, this is coming out of left field.
- Like they were both kind of out of left field, not part of your core business, but super successful.
- And, and then certainly out of left field, there were some physical ideas that proved to be very, very, very powerful.
- And this is one of those it was such out of left field like it just I don't know.
- That was just that just came out left field because earlier today I had moments where I had to.
Examples
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I appreciated the backstory with Mystique and Charles, but it came completely from left field.
Blog text (33) -
And it kind of came out of left field.
Blog text (33) -
Like it came out of left field and I was just like what?
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Like they were both kind of out of left field, not part of your core business, but super successful.
-
Our favorite guess was a little out of left field.
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It's a little bit left field, but it's adjacent to this topic.
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Your premises are wrong, and the conclusions are way out in left field.
Blog text (32) -
Julia's kitchen breakdown was powerful, but seemingly out of left field.
Blog text (11) -
Sometimes they come up with something out of left field; that’s the moment to see how candidates think on their feet.
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The artist's latest creation was truly from left field, leaving everyone in awe of its originality.
Synonyms
∞
2.3
Unusual and slightly odd in a way you cannot easily understand
798
1.0
Different from what is normal or expected
48
4.1
Not usual and different from what people expect
7
8.0
Strange and often funny in a surprising way
1
6.3
Not usual and often interesting or surprising
1
9.9
Not usual or expected in a situation
Something surprising and out of place in a situation
Antonyms
How Unexpected
406
5.9
34
7.4
- Informal
5
7.4
392
2.5
∞
2.2
683
1.0
Surface Forms
Morphology
The sense 'unexpected or surprising' is not derivable from the literal constituents 'left' and 'field' (which denote a location, originally a baseball position). This is an idiomatic/colloquial use (often as 'out of left field') whose metaphorical extension is language-specific and would not be predictable to a B1 learner who only knows the component words.
Etymology
Left field meaning 'unexpected' comes from baseball where a ball or play suddenly from the far left can surprise players, so saying something came 'out of left field' now means 'unexpected'.