field jacket

Noun

field jacket (plural field jackets)

1. A military or military-style jacket made of fabric (wool or cotton).
   • The morning was raw, yet he wore only summer khaki trousers, a light Army field jacket and, of all things, tennis shoes. He was shivering.1944, Ernie Pyle, chapter 15, in Brave Men, New York: Henry Holt, page 231
   • One of the MP sergeants, in an uncommon act of kindness, strips off his own field jacket and lays it over the prisoner with the injured legs, as no one else seems ready to help him.2007, Aidan Delgado, The Sutras of Abu Ghraib, Boston: Beacon Press, Part 4, p. 160
2. A covering used by paleontologists to protect fossils, usually made of plaster and burlap.
   • Similar to a cast a doctor wraps around a broken leg, a field jacket keeps fossils from moving or breaking and protects them during transport.1999, Monique Keiran, Ornithomimus: Pursuing the Bird-Mimic Dinosaur, Vancouver: Raincoast, page 25
   • Inside were various bones, still clothed in their white plaster field jackets, as they patiently waited their turn to be liberated and put on display.2011, Richard Polsky, Boneheads: My Search for T. Rex, San Francisco: Council Oak Books, Part 2, Chapter 18, p. 133