FIELD MOUSE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does field mouse mean? 

• FIELD MOUSE (noun)
  The noun FIELD MOUSE has 2 senses:

1. any of various small mouselike rodents of the family Cricetidae (especially of genus Microtus) having a stout short-tailed body and inconspicuous ears and inhabiting fields or meadows

2. any nocturnal Old World mouse of the genus Apodemus inhabiting woods and fields and gardens

  Familiarity information: FIELD MOUSE used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• FIELD MOUSE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Any of various small mouselike rodents of the family Cricetidae (especially of genus Microtus) having a stout short-tailed body and inconspicuous ears and inhabiting fields or meadows

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Synonyms:

field mouse; vole

Hypernyms ("field mouse" is a kind of...):

wood-rat; wood rat (any of various small short-tailed rodents of the northern hemisphere having soft fur grey above and white below with furred tails and large ears; some are hosts for Ixodes pacificus and Ixodes scapularis (Lyme disease ticks))

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "field mouse"):

grasshopper mouse (insectivorous mouse of western North America)

pine mouse; pine vole; Pitymys pinetorum (short-tailed glossy-furred burrowing vole of the eastern United States)

meadow mouse; meadow vole; Microtus pennsylvaticus (widely distributed in grasslands of northern United States and Canada)

Microtus richardsoni; Richardson vole; water vole (of western North America)

Microtus ochrogaster; prairie vole (typical vole of the extended prairie region of central United States and southern Canada)

Arvicola amphibius; water rat; water vole (common large Eurasian vole)

red-backed mouse; redback vole (any of several voles of mountainous regions of Eurasia and America)

phenacomys (any of several vole-like terrestrial or arboreal rodents of cold forested regions of Canada and western United States)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Any nocturnal Old World mouse of the genus Apodemus inhabiting woods and fields and gardens

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Synonyms:

field mouse; fieldmouse

Hypernyms ("field mouse" is a kind of...):

mouse (any of numerous small rodents typically resembling diminutive rats having pointed snouts and small ears on elongated bodies with slender usually hairless tails)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "field mouse"):

Apodemus sylvaticus; European wood mouse (nocturnal yellowish-brown mouse inhabiting woods and fields and gardens)

Holonyms ("field mouse" is a member of...):

Apodemus; genus Apodemus (Old World field mice)

 Context examples 

The virus can also infect monkeys, dogs, field mice, guinea pigs, and hamsters, the latter an epidemiologically important host.

(Lymphocytic Choriomeningitis Virus, NLM, Medical Subject Headings)

"Suppose we call the field mice," she suggested.

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

They observed by my teeth, which they viewed with great exactness, that I was a carnivorous animal; yet most quadrupeds being an overmatch for me, and field mice, with some others, too nimble, they could not imagine how I should be able to support myself, unless I fed upon snails and other insects, which they offered, by many learned arguments, to evince that I could not possibly do.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

The field mouse, now that it was freed from its enemy, stopped short; and coming slowly up to the Woodman it said, in a squeaky little voice: Oh, thank you!

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

Then they told him of the field mice, and how they had generously saved him from death; and the Cowardly Lion laughed, and said: I have always thought myself very big and terrible; yet such little things as flowers came near to killing me, and such small animals as mice have saved my life. How strange it all is!

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

As it came nearer the Tin Woodman saw that running before the beast was a little gray field mouse, and although he had no heart he knew it was wrong for the Wildcat to try to kill such a pretty, harmless creature.

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)