in the trenches
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
Experiencing difficult or unpleasant situations firsthand
Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt
trải nghiệm khó khăn hoặc tình huống không thoải mái trực tiếp
Machine-translated — suggest a fix
Literally: soldiers in battle trenches
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
The doctors have been in the trenches all night, trying to save the patient
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 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “in the trenches” mean?
Experiencing difficult or unpleasant situations firsthand Literally: soldiers in battle trenches
Is “in the trenches” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.