campaign

Etymology

From French campagne, from Italian campagna (“field, military operation”), from Late Latin campānia (“open country, battlefield”), from Latin campus (“field”). Doublet of campania, campagna, and champagne.

noun

1. A series of operations undertaken to achieve a set goal.
   an election campaign
   a military campaign
   The company is targeting children in its latest advertising campaign.
   (roleplaying games) A series of play sessions using the same player characters, forming a continuous narrative.
   MILLER: Mr. President, I wonder if you could tell us about some of the audiences you talked to in the 1948 campaign? For instance, I think we'd all be curious about what was the smallest audience you had in the 1948 campaign? TRUMAN: Well, I'll- it'll sound as if I'm bragging about the 1948 campaign, but I never had an audience under five or ten thousand people in the whole series of trips which we took- about 31,700 miles on the train. 1965, Harry S. Truman, Merle Miller, 0:12 from the start, in MP2002-300 Former President Truman Discusses 1948 Campaign and Other Presidents in History, Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives Identifier: 595162
   The Canaries went ahead when the home defence failed to clear their lines and Pilkington was on hand to slide in his eighth goal of the campaign. April 9, 2012, Mandeep Sanghera, “Tottenham 1 - 2 Norwich”, in BBC Sport
2. The period during which a blast furnace is continuously in operation.
3. (obsolete) An open field; a large, open plain without considerable hills; a champaign.
4. (obsolete) An excursion into the countryside.

verb

1. (intransitive) To take part in a campaign.
   She campaigned for better social security.
   But the purported rise in violent videos online has led some MPs to campaign for courts to have more power to remove or block material on YouTube. The Labour MP Heidi Alexander said she was appalled after a constituent was robbed at knifepoint, and the attackers could be found brandishing weapons and rapping about gang violence online. April 19, 2012, Josh Halliday, “Free speech haven or lawless cesspool – can the internet be civilised?”, in the Guardian
2. (transitive) Consistently ride in races for a racing season.
   After modifying her for ocean racing, he campaigned her for three years, and in 1975, donated her to the U.S. Naval Academy. 1983 May, “Jack King: Merrythought”, in Yachting, volume 153, number 5, page 110
   The "more curious" were the affluent planters who bred and campaigned race horses in quarter races, the only form of racing practiced in the Virginia colony during the first 125 years of its existence. 1983, Alexander Mackay-Smith, The colonial quarter race horse, page 14
   Holman & Moody built more Mustangs than just the Mickey Thompson cars. One in that number was this red 302-powered 1969 Sportsroof. It was campaigned by David Pearson and Bobby Allison during the 1969 through 1972 seasons. 2002, John Albert Craft, Mustang Race Cars, page 124
   Ron campaigned the car for a couple seasons before selling it to Mark Danekas (Danekas blowers), who ran the car himself briefly before putting it on the market once again. 2014, Doug Boyce, chapter 1, in Drag Racing's Quarter-Mile Warriors: Then & Now, page 31