frontline

or front-line

[ fruhnt-lahyn ]

adjective
  1. located or designed to be used at a military front line: a frontline ambulance helicopter.

  2. of, relating to, or involving the forefront in any action, activity, or field: a frontline TV reporter.

  1. highly experienced or proficient in the performance of one's duties.

  2. of or relating to essential work that depends on in-person interactions and may involve some risk, especially policing, healthcare, emergency services, public transit, grocery, warehouse, and delivery work: Congress is taking up a bill that would guarantee sick leave and hazard pay to frontline workers.

Origin of frontline

1
First recorded in 1910–15; front (in the military sense) + line1

Other definitions for front line (2 of 2)

front line
[ fruhnt-lahyn ]

noun
  1. Military. front (def. 9).

  2. the place where in-person essential work is carried out, especially in jobs that may involve some risk, as in policing, healthcare, emergency services, public transit, grocery, warehouse, and delivery work: Our bookstore extends a discount to all the teachers, aides, specialists, librarians, and therapists who are on the front line serving our children in schools every day.

  1. the visible forefront in any action, activity, or field: TV reporters are constantly involved in the front line of events.

  2. Football. front four.

  3. Basketball. front court (def. 2b).

Origin of front line

2
First recorded in 1670–80

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use frontline in a sentence

  • By the time we had passed along the whole of the French second line and part of their front line trenches, I had had about enough.

  • On my way back to the beach I saw the Plymouth Battalion as it marched in from the front line.

  • Just at this moment they are shelling our usual front line billets vigorously.

  • There was no room for them in the front line trenches and communication trenches to the front had not yet been dug.

  • The Second and Ninth Corps were in the town, the front line was in the streets and the rear line along the bank of the river.

    The Boys of '61 | Charles Carleton Coffin.

British Dictionary definitions for front line

front line

noun
  1. military the most advanced military units or elements in a battle

  2. the most advanced, exposed, or conspicuous element in any activity or situation

  1. frontline (modifier)

    • of, relating to, or suitable for the front line of a military formation: frontline troops

    • British of, relating to, or suitable for public service and business employees who are in direct contact with the public: frontline staff

    • to the fore; advanced, conspicuous, etc: frontline news

    • of or relating to a country bordering on or close to a hostile country or scene of armed conflict: leaders of the frontline states attended the summit

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012