testing ground

English

Noun

testing ground (plural testing grounds)

1. A military site that is used for testing weapons.
   • 1960, United States. Foreign Broadcast Information Service, Daily Report: Foreign Radio Broadcasts - Issues 16-20, page 85:

     You know, brothers, that West Irian may possibly, possibly, I repeat possibly, also become a testing ground for either atomic weapons or other explosive devices.

   • 1984, Jadwiga Bezwińska, Danuta Czech, KL Auschwitz Seen by the SS, page 58:

     In 1862, upon orders of Bismarck who was preparing for war, a big military testing ground was established there and it was used in part as a camp for French prisoners of war already during the Franco-Prussian war.

   • 1991, Current Politics and Economics of Russia, page 122:

     The most horrible part of the testing ground's history is probably what happened in 1953 to the small village of Karaul standing on a hill slope.

   • 1991, Daily Report: Soviet Union, page 59:

     Veterans of the Semipalatinsk nuclear testing ground recall their enthusiasm for their work in perfecting a hydrogen bomb to defend the Motherland

2. A location set up for the testing of vehicles, machinery, agricultural techniques, etc. to ensure that they work as intended.
   • 1966, Joint FAO/ECE/ILO Committee on Forest Working Techniques and Training of Forest Workers, Methods of Testing Brush-cutting Machines and Machines for Forest-soil Working and Afforestation, page 4:

     The testing ground shall be not less than 1 ha in area and the length worked not less than 100 m.

   • 1967, Howe V. General Motors Corporation, page 570:

     And inside that testing ground you have guards and people who prevent the public from coming in to those grounds, isn't that true?

   • 1972, Telecommunication Journal - Volume 39, page 660:

     The Geinsheim testing ground, a free-field site equipped to handle bigger and heavier antennae, is located about 16 km west of Darmstadt in the Rhine valley between Leeheim and Geinsheim.

   • 1978, Space World:

     The Salsk testing ground was included in the list of pilot agricultural regions already at that time, geobotanic mapping of the territories adjacent to Lake Balkhash was carried out and the grazing grounds in southwestern Turkmenia as well as the state of the irrigation system in the Ferghana Valley were studied.

3. (figuratively) A situation or thing that allows new ideas, methods, or hypotheses to be tried out.
   • 1973, Sea Grant College Reprint - Volume 74, Issues 350-376, page 15:

     Copper Harbor, where there are known copper veins, was used as a testing ground for the AMT method.

   • 1985, “Boston On the Barricades”, in Newsweek, volume 106, page 70:

     "Boston must become a testing ground for the ideals of freedom," King admonished the crowd .

   • 1985, Donald C. Lorents, Walter Ernst Meyerhof, James R. Peterson, Electronic and Atomic Collisions, page 765:

     Although the rare gases and especially Xe have, for several years now, been serving as a testing ground for experimental multiphoton ionization studies, relevant calculations have been very rare.

   • 1988, William C. Wonders, Knowing the North, page 84:

     The North has already become, and will continue to be, a significant testing-ground for the provisions of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

   • 1997, Craig W. Horle, Lawmaking and Legislators in Pennsylvania: 1710-1756, page 4:

     These special features of Pennsylvania's colonial life — religious toleration, democratic tradition, ethnically diverse settlers, and strategic economic position — make it an ideal testing ground for studying the sociopolitical development of the United States.

   • 2010, Julie A. Willett, The American Beauty Industry Encyclopedia, page 64:

     The store was considered the best testing ground for new men's items.

4. (figuratively) A situation or problem that allows people to test how good they are.

   Synonym: proving ground

   • 1977, Edward P. Morgan, Inequality in Classroom Learning, page 59:

     Autocratic control grows out of the fundamental imposition of a testing ground on all our young people; the institution that teaches the young also tests the young.

   • 2009, Magnum Photos, Korea: As Seen by Magnum Photographers, page 283:

     Movie actors and singers often use the musical stage as a testing ground for their talent and popularity .

   • 2011, H. Torrevillas, A Mystical Connection:

     War, anywhere in the world, whether tribal or global, is a testing ground for man's living soul in the flesh.

   • 2020, Magdalena Wong, Everyday Masculinities in 21st-Century China, page 3:

     Women and prostitution become a testing ground for men to prove their wealth and prestige.

Further reading

• “testing ground”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
• “testing ground” in Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, Longman.
• “testing ground”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “testing ground” (US) / “testing ground” (UK) in Macmillan English Dictionary.