champaign
noun
level, open country; plain.
champaign
1 American
[sham-peyn]
/ ʃæmˈpeɪn /
noun
-
level, open country; plain.
-
Obsolete. a battlefield.
adjective
Champaign
2
American
[sham-peyn]
/ ʃæmˈpeɪn /
noun
champaign
British
/ ʃæmˈpeɪn /
noun
-
Also called: campagna. an expanse of open level or gently undulating country
-
an obsolete word for battlefield
Etymology
Origin of champaign
1350–1400; Middle English champai ( g ) ne < Middle French champa ( i ) gne < Latin campānia; see campaign
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
I have a roster of great wines that start around $7 or $8 and go to $13 -- my limit, unless it's champaign.
From New York Times • Jan. 12, 2017
The newly engaged couple appeared on Fox 5’s “Good Day DC” Monday morning, where the staff feted them with cake and champaign.
From Washington Times • Nov. 2, 2015
In November came the U.S. invasion of North Africa and a sudden, inordinate drain on Eastern oil stocks; as the North African champaign became more complicated, the drain increased.
From Time Magazine Archive
It was a vast champaign of almost boundless extent, which the fairy-like coloring of the mountains, softened by their great distance, enclosed, as it were, with banks of unmoving clouds.
From A Flight in Spring In the car Lucania from New York to the Pacific coast and back, during April and May, 1898 by Knowles, J. Harris (John Harris)
The world, the clustering spheres He made, The glorious light, the soothing shade, Dale, champaign, grove and hill: The multitudinous abyss, Where secrecy remains in bliss, And wisdom hides her skill.
From The Golden Treasury Selected from the Best Songs and Lyrical Poems in the English Language and arranged with Notes by Various
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
