territory

To be thorough and comprehensive in what is presented or dealt with. This thesis will attempt to cover the field of English Law from 1950 to the present.

Completely unexplored or untested field(s) or area(s) of activity. The entrepreneur made his millions when he set up one of the world's most popular search engines back when the Internet was still considered virgin territory.

A person or thing is completely separate from the judgments or perceptions that people place upon it. The phrase was coined by US semanticist Alfred Korzybski. I know you dislike Ed because of how he acted in that meeting, but you don't actually know him. Just keep in mind that the map is not the territory, OK?

Fig. to be expected under circumstances like this. (Alludes to the details and difficulties attendant to something like the assignment of a specific sales territory to a salesperson. When one accepts the assignment, one accepts the problems.) There is a lot of paperwork in this job. Oh, well, I guess it comes with the territory. There are problems, but they go with the territory.

an area of knowledge unknown to the speaker. We are in unfamiliar territory and I don't know the answer. Astronomy is unfamiliar territory for me, and I cannot answer any questions about the stars.

included as a regular part of a job or activity Steven knew when he became a doctor that telephone calls at any hour came with the territory and to be prepared for them.

if you say that something comes with the territory, you mean that you have to accept it as a necessary part or result of a particular situation If you're a goalkeeper, you've got to expect injuries - it comes with the territory. He's a public figure, and so a certain amount of media intrusion goes with the territory.

Accompany specific circumstances, as in You may not like the new coach, but he comes with the territory, or As the editor, you may not like listening to complaints, but it comes with the territory. This term uses territory in the sense of "sales district," and the phrase originally meant that traveling sales personnel had to accept whatever problems or perquisites they found in their assigned region. Today it is applied in many other contexts. [Second half of 1900s]

Also, cover the territory or waterfront . Be comprehensive. For example, The review course will cover the field very well, or Bob's new assignment really covers the territory, or The superintendent's speech covered the waterfront on the drug problem. These expressions all employ the verb cover in the sense of "extend over" or "include," a usage dating from the late 1700s, with the nouns ( field, ground, territory, waterfront) each meaning "whole area."