Wiktionary
n. 1 the field of fire of a machine gun or artillery 2 a place of mass slaughter; especially the Killing Fields of Cambodia
WordNet
n. (usually plural) an area where many people have died (usually by massacre or genocide during war or violent civil disturbance)
Wikipedia
A killing field, in military science, is an area in front of a defensive position that the enemy must cross during an assault and is specifically intended to allow the defending troops to incapacitate a large number of the enemy. Defensive emplacements such as anti-tank obstacles, barbed wire and minefields are often used to funnel the enemy into these killing fields. The fields are generally cleared of most cover so that attackers are exposed when being fired upon. Some methods of destroying the assault capabilities of attacking forces include machine guns, artillery and mortars; often with interlocking fields of fire. Such a term may be used to describe the approaches to an "ideal" defensive fortification. An example of a killing field would be the exposed beaches in front of the seawall at Normandy.
The term originated in medieval warfare to describe clear areas outside of a castle's walls such as pastures or specifically cleared fields where enemy soldiers could be easily and methodically killed in large numbers by ranged weapons. It also refers to areas within castles specially designed to bunch attackers who had breached the outer defenses into an area where the defenders could kill them easily through arrow loops and murder holes. Often these were small courtyards surrounded by high walls.
A Killing vector field is a concept in mathematics named for Wilhelm Killing.
Killing field may also refer to:
- Killing Fields, a number of massacre sites in Cambodia
- Texas Killing Fields (location), a location in Texas which is the scene of 30+ murders, mostly unsolved
Usage examples of "killing field".
Not only could Bravo have taken the force with enfilading fire, but the plan called for the battalion to wait for Bravo so that the shock of their first strike would turn the Posleen towards the Monument and into the killing field he intended to make of the monument area.
On the killing field, Trake's Legion was now surrounded by K'Chain Che'Malle, who were a match for the enormous beast's lightning speed.
The jagged metal killing field was already dark crimson from the splashed blood and offal of the previous day's battle, baked onto the metal by the merciless summer sun.
In the Sinai, Israeli tanks and armored personnel carriers pushed toward the Suez Canal along all three of the roads that crossed the desert, turning the burning sands into a massive killing field.
Only now the fight has grown more desperate because the Cursed Ones have brought their metal weapons to the killing field.
Even Etaine, the worst killing field I have ever known, was not as disadvantageous as the ground I cross now.
Whether intentionally or not, whoever had built the concrete apron around the building's base had created a perfect killing field.
From miles away, the 8-inch howitzers and the 155's began laying down a killing field of fire.
I wasn't the one who rode home from a killing field and named myself a chief.
A killing field of sounds filled his ears: terrible wails and screams and panting, the crack of severed bones, and the thick liquid gurgle of blades yanked free of flesh.