at it vs in the field

at it

prep
  • Occupied with a given activity; busy with something. 

  • Engaged in sexual intercourse or other sexual activity. 

in the field

prep
  • Actively engaged in fighting or dealing with the enemy; in battle or on maneuvers. 

  • Away from the office, classroom, or laboratory; working with people or things in their natural environment. 

  • Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see in, field. 

  • In a real-world setting, as opposed to the controlled conditions of a laboratory or the hypothesized parameters of a theoretical approach. 

How often have the words at it and in the field occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )