front lines
Where combat happens
The front lines are the positions closest to an enemy in combat—where actual fighting occurs.
Military personnel on the front lines face direct engagement.
The phrase extends to any situation involving direct confrontation with difficulty: Nurses are on the front lines of the healthcare crisis.
Those on the front lines do the hardest, most immediate work while others remain safely distant.
- battlefrontsActive combat boundaries
- no man's landUnowned space between enemies
- warfareArmed conflict between groups
- combatArmed hostile engagement
- trenchesElongated ground excavations
warzone · under fire · advance guard · battlefield · artillery barrages · shell shock · defensive positions · barbed wire · skirmish · field hospitals · reinforcements · enemy · engagement · war of attrition · offensive · foxhole · soldiers · boots on the ground
- battlefieldsGettysburg, Waterloo, Antietam, trenches, Stalingrad
- Battlefrontsbattle line, combat zone, war zone, warzone, theater of war
- campaign mapsbattle map, troop movements, terrain map, strategic positions, battle plans
- Conflict ZonesGaza, Ukraine, Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq
- WWI Western Fronttrenches, poison gas, artillery barrages, no man's land, offensives
- World War Itrenches, trench warfare, soldiers, battlefields, Treaty of Versailles
front linesrear guard
Troops covering a retreat
rear echelon · home front · rear · base camp · headquarters
front linessidelines
Field boundary lines
safe zone · safety · shelter · sanctuary · protected area
front linesbehind the scenes
Out of public view
back office · background · support staff · administration · ivory tower