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.

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

4. 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.

Word History and Origins

Origin of frontline¹

First recorded in 1910–15; front (in the military sense) + line ¹ ( def. )

Example Sentences

Any more than 20 minutes in this shattered frontline village and Somalia's Al-Shabaab militants could start lobbing mortars at their position.

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Although the Zaporizhzia frontline is much less active than the eastern front, where most of the fighting occurs, Russian forces that are better equipped and more numerous than their opponents are advancing in both regions.

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During the three-day warm-up, specialist spinner Shoaib Bashir played for the Lions with part-timer Joe Root bowling 14.5 overs to take the pressure off the frontline quicks.

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"Fossil fuels are still being burned. We know all too well what it's like to live on the frontline of climate change," Brianna Fruean, a climate activist from Samoa, a low-lying island extremely vulnerable to climate change, told the BBC.

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Nikopol lies on the Dnipro River that forms the frontline with Russian forces.

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