cover the field

Idioms  

1. Also,. Be comprehensive. For example, The review course will cover the field very well, or Bob's new assignment really covers the territory, or The superintendent's speech covered the waterfront on the drug problem. These expressions all employ the verb cover in the sense of “extend over” or “include,” a usage dating from the late 1700s, with the nouns (field, ground, territory, waterfront) each meaning “whole area.”

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Example Sentences

Colson has been gradually integrating into the defense, but he’s already making an impact, disrupting a screen pass and demonstrating his ability to cover the field.

From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 14, 2024

“I changed it a bit to cover the field better. From that moment on we had the right game. Either I did badly at first or well afterwards.”

From Seattle Times • Aug. 18, 2022

The skies opened again at 9:02 p.m., forcing the grounds crew to sprint toward the tarp and cover the field before the top of the sixth.

From Washington Post • Jul. 1, 2021

“And one unit can cover the field pretty well. We literally sat down and sketched it out on a piece of paper and figured out how these two systems could talk to each other.”

From New York Times • Sep. 30, 2016

Stray leaves cover the field, like headstones in a cemetery.

From "Kwame Crashes the Underworld" by Craig Kofi Farmer