champaign

[sham-peyn]

See more synonyms for champaign on Thesaurus.com

noun

level, open country; plain.
Obsolete. a battlefield.

adjective

level and open: champaign fields.

Origin of champaign

1350–1400; Middle English champai(g)ne < Middle French champa(i)gne < Latin campānia; see campaign

Can be confusedchampagne champaign

Champaign

[sham-peyn]

noun

a city in E Illinois, adjoining Urbana.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words for champaign

meadow, expanse, field, prairie, steppe, grassland, plateau, district, zone, region, colony, county, part, department, territory, circle, realm, scope, province, area

Examples from the Web for champaign

Contemporary Examples of champaign

There are also practitioners of this dark art in Portland, Oregon; Champaign, Illinois; and … the Upper East Side of Manhattan?
Could I Possibly Have Been Wrong About the French Fry Burger?
Daniel Gross
September 4, 2013
And since 1999, he hosted the Roger Ebert Film Festival in Champaign, Illinois, home to the University of Illinois.
Roger Ebert, 70, Has Died: A Look at the Life of Cinema’s Great Appreciator
Marlow Stern
April 4, 2013

Historical Examples of champaign

"Let us finish this champaign, my good fellow," says the politician, emptying his glass.
An Outcast
F. Colburn Adams
One of the professors in the Industrial University at Champaign is a lady.
History of Woman Suffrage, Volume III (of III)
Various
The tailors are the best judges of that; but Champaign, I suppose.
Nineteen Centuries of Drink in England
Richard Valpy French
These Lordships are champaign grounds, and full of corn and fruit.
The Strange Adventures of Andrew Battell
Andrew Battell
He is now at Champaign, Ill., and has not been able to attend trial.
The American Missionary, Volume 43, No. 6, June, 1889
Various

British Dictionary definitions for champaign

champaign

noun

Also called: campagna an expanse of open level or gently undulating country
an obsolete word for battlefield

Word Origin for champaign

C14: from Old French champaigne, from Late Latin campānia; see campaign

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for champaign

"open country, plain," c.1400, from Old French champagne "country, countryside," from Latin campania "plain, level country," especially that near Rome (see campaign (n.)).