field trip

American  

noun

• field trips
  plural

1. a trip by students to gain firsthand knowledge away from the classroom, as to a museum, factory, geological area, or environment of certain plants and animals.

2. a trip by a scholar or researcher to gather data firsthand, as to a geological, archaeological, anthropological, or other site.

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field trip British  

noun

1. an expedition, as by a group of students or research workers, to study something at first hand

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• field trips
  plural

Etymology

Origin of field trip

First recorded in 1955–60

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

field trip

During a stop at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, an owl perched on her gloved arm made her squeal like the girl she had been during her first visit there on a grade-school field trip.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 2, 2026

For many, the Colonial Williamsburg experience begins and ends with a school field trip.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 16, 2026

Democratic Party fundraiser Charles Myers is organizing a post-Maduro field trip to Venezuela with about 20 hedge funders and asset managers to scout investment opportunities in “oil and gas,” “construction,” and “tourism.”

From Slate ● Jan. 5, 2026

They championed team bonding exercises such as slideshow presentations that introduced themselves to each other and a field trip to a Porsche driving experience.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 26, 2025

Smiling big, I thought about how two years ago we’d both been here for our fifth-grade field trip.

From "Sir Fig Newton and the Science of Persistence" by Sonja Thomas