playing field
5
1.5
- noun
- /ˈpleɪɪŋ fiːld/
:
campo de juego
- The Los Llanitos packed-earth playing field is like an elongated tennis court; at 215 by 13 feet, it is about twice as long but only one-fourth as wide.
I used to ride my bicycle to the Cedar Park and playing field.
- I used to ride my bicycle to the Cedar Park and playing field.
- Now, you may have been wondering just what I have been doing over these past six decades since I left the Harvard playing fields.
Examples
-
Ernie Davis has returned to the playing field.
-
In contrast, they indicated being committed to both roles, taking great pride in performing well in the classroom as well as on the playing field.
Academic text (2002) -
Now the football team returns to its playing field.
Blog text (5) -
So I'm on the playing field.
-
Clean woods, wide playing fields, smooth ponds.
Academic text (1990) -
MIT's campus is all inclusive, with an extensive athletic plant and playing fields fully accessible.
-
On the playing field next to the school, she'd set up little dolls—children playing games at recess.
Fiction book (1992) -
At the other end is a playing field of grass, with some students practicing soccer skills, others throwing basketballs into hoops, and others performing calisthenics.
Academic text (1992) -
Texas A&M recently planted about 97,000 square feet of Tifsport turf to give the Aggie soccer team a new playing field.
Academic text (2002) -
The children eagerly ran onto the playing field to start their soccer match.
Synonyms
713
1.0
An area marked for playing sports like soccer
34
2.6
An area of ground marked for playing sports like soccer
3
2.1
An area of land people prepare and keep for playing sports like soccer or track
1
1.8
An area marked and prepared for sports, like a field or court
How Big
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase is a metaphorical extension of the literal 'playing field' (a sports ground) to mean the conditions or circumstances for competition; a learner who knows 'playing' and 'field' will likely infer a sports/competition relation but may not reliably derive the abstract sense of 'conditions' or 'fairness' without prior exposure. The sports-field metaphor exists in many languages, which supports partial predictability but not full compositional transparency.
Etymology
Playing field originally meant the real area of grass or ground made and marked for sports and games. So playing field still means 'an area of land prepared for playing sports'.