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minefield

US/ˈmaɪnˌfild/
nounC2Common in everyday speech and writing · #8,251 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: minefields

A minefield is ground sown with explosives, or a matter full of hidden dangers. Clear the minefield, a legal minefield, a political minefield.

The literal ones outlast the wars that laid them by decades, and clearing is slow, dangerous work. The figurative sense is now the commoner: a legal minefield is a subject where the danger is not visible until you step on it.

Definitions of minefield

  1. 1nounminefieldGround sown with explosives, or a matter full of hidden dangers.C2

    “Soldiers spent months clearing the minefield so farmers could use the land again.”

minefield is a danger.

Where it comes from

Mine plus field. Mine here comes from the tunnels once dug to undermine a wall.

From mine + field. Compare stq Mienenfäield (“minefield”), West Frisian mynfjild (“minefield”), Dutch mijnenveld (“minefield”), German Low German Minenfeld (“minefield”), German Minenfeld (“minefield”), Danish minefelt (“minefield”), Swedish minfält (“minefield”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

minefield in the wild

  • Land mines are typically laid throughout an area, creating a minefield which is dangerous to cross.

    Land mine

  • Adopt-A-Minefield is a British charity which raises awareness about landmines and their associated problems, and raises funds to clear minefields and help survivors of landmine accidents.

    Adopt-A-Minefield

  • P32 was not in a good position to make an attack, and so attempted to improve it by running underneath a moored minefield.

    HMS P32 (1940)

  • Believing that she had cleared the minefield, the commanding officer, Lieutenant D.A.B.

    HMS P32 (1940)

  • Target acquisition minefield detection system (also known as the "Airborne standoff minefield detection system", or ASTAMIDS) is a bomb-detection system engineered to detect improvised explosive devices (IED).

    Target acquisition minefield detection system

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.