field hand

noun

: an outdoor farm laborer

Example Sentences

Recent Examples on the Web Jordeen was a field hand on the Minton place. Ayana Mathis, New York Times, 11 Nov. 2020 Burnett, though a year younger than Shields, became a pseudo-mentor, creating on-field hand signals specifically for Shields to help him identify the play. Jr Radcliffe, Journal Sentinel, 3 Nov. 2022 One is Shepard Mallory, a field hand who was one of three slaves who sought sanctuary at Fort Monroe in 1861, and Confederate Army Major John B. Cary, who came to the fort to retrieve Mallory and the other men. San Diego Union-Tribune, 18 Oct. 2021 Present-day homes include grand farm estates as well as more modest field hand houses turned residential homes. Christina Tkacik, baltimoresun.com, 19 Aug. 2021 According to Encyclopedia Britannica, she was forced to work from a young age, alternatively acting as a nursemaid, a field hand, a cook and a woodcutter. Isis Davis-marks, Smithsonian Magazine, 22 Apr. 2021 And now, so do UPS drivers, and postal workers, and agricultural field hands, and hospital orderlies, and a whole range of people whose jobs require them to continue to work with others despite the dangers and lockdowns. Peter Grier, The Christian Science Monitor, 28 Apr. 2020 Her empathetic portraits of African-American field hands shine a light on a system of peonage that predated and outlasted the 1930s. New York Times, 12 Mar. 2020 Unlike heroin, cocaine or marijuana, the distributor explained, fentanyl didn’t require farmland, crops, sunshine, rain or field hands. Alex W. Palmer, New York Times, 17 Oct. 2019 See More

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'field hand.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

1774, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of field hand was in 1774

Dictionary Entries Near field hand

Cite this Entry

“Field hand.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/field%20hand. Accessed 1 Jun. 2023.

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