field day
noun
Forms field days
- noun (military) A day for maneuvers and tactical exercises in the field (across the landscape).
- noun (US) A school day for athletic events.
- noun A day of class taken away from school for a field trip.
- noun (idiomatic) A great time or a great deal to do; a period of bustling activity. “They went to the park and had a field day playing on the swings.”
- noun (idiomatic) A great time or a great deal to do, at somebody else's expense. “The reporters will have a field day with a comment like that.”
- noun (US military, specifically US Navy, US Coast Guard and US Marine Corps) A day on which there is top-to-bottom all-hands cleaning.
Synonyms
Etymology
Some postulate the idiomatic usage is derived from the "parade day" military use. A parade is much easier than the soldiers’ usual drilling and intense exercise.
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 — from the Wiktionary entry “field day”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details