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Glite Dictionary
🏟️ To enter to play ⚔️ To start fighting
to take the field

to take the field

1 8.0
To send soldiers out to start fighting
  • phrasal verb
  • Jargon
translation icon : tomar el campo
  • Fabricius' victories were not against Hannibal in a pitched battle; they were a harrying action, and any successes were against Hannibal's field commanders, never when he actually took the field.

Examples

  • Saturday, the Irish have to take the field in South Bend against 17th-ranked Stanford.

    Blog text (4)

  • Through the might of the Lord of All, I took the field against the Noba Nubians...

    Academic text (2009)

  • Why don't you take the field?

    The Scout (1994)

  • Crassus is inviting us to march on Rome, so he can take the field against us.

    Spartacus (1960)

  • A team facing fourth-and-short within striking distance of the end zone, down 11, will almost always take the field goal in order to "make it a one-possession game," but the only way to truly make it a one-possession game is to score a touchdown.

    Blog text (30)

  • Cutler and Marshall did make a couple of untimely mistakes (INTs, fumbles, etc.), but consider the mindset that they must take the field with.

    Blog text (30)

  • After months of preparation, the general announced that the troops would take the field at sunrise tomorrow.

  • When the orders came through, the soldiers were eager to take the field and begin the battle.

  • Determined to recapture the lost territory, the army was ready to take the field by the end of the week.

Synonyms

to campaign
vsto take the field
11 7.7

To take part in a series of military actions

refers to starting military operations or going off to war
to take arms
vsto take the field
5 7.9

To begin fighting by using weapons against an enemy

refers to starting military operations broadly rather than just preparing to fight

Antonyms

to withdraw
466 2.8

To stop taking part in a place or activity

How Aggressive

to invade
380 4.4
to take the field
  • Jargon
1 8.0
to mobilize
34 6.1
deployment
144 6.1

Surface Forms

take the field infinitive
taking the field present participle
takes the field third person singular
took the field past
taken the field past participle

Morphology

take + the + field

The meaning 'to go onto the playing field' is compositional: 'take' (to assume or occupy) combined with 'field' (the playing ground) yields the idea of occupying the field. This is a conventional sports usage but follows transparent English composition, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents should be able to infer the meaning.

Etymology

Take the field may come from soldiers moving onto open land before a battle. They would walk onto and hold the field, so the phrase came to mean 'to begin military operations'.