in the field vs on duty

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. 

on duty

prep
  • Actively engaged in an assigned task, duty or occupation. 

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