at the coal face
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
directly involved in a difficult or challenging situation
Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt
Trực tiếp tham gia vào một tình huống khó khăn hoặc thách thức
Machine-translated — suggest a fix
Literally: working at the front of a coal mine
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
The nurses are at the coal face of the pandemic
AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-30; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “at the coal face” mean?
directly involved in a difficult or challenging situation Literally: working at the front of a coal mine
Is “at the coal face” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.