salt mine

noun

1. a mine from which salt is excavated.

2. Usually salt mines. a place of habitual confinement and drudgery.

   After two weeks of vacation it will be back to the salt mines for the staff.

Word History and Origins

Origin of salt mine¹

First recorded in 1675–85

Example Sentences

That's also been placed in the Memory of Mankind repository, another vault safeguarding historic documents, hidden in a salt mine in Austria.

From BBC

Their bunker, an astonishingly constructed salt mine, has a house, individual rooms, a swimming pool, a fishery and just about anything else you’d need in the aftermath of an ecoapocalypse.

From Salon

But they warm to each other enough to sing their own duet, running through the salt mine with their arms stretched wide.

From Los Angeles Times

Much of the choreography was figured out on set, often in a real salt mine.

From Los Angeles Times

The Monuments Men and Women Gallery includes a recreation of a salt mine where monuments officers found stolen art.

From Seattle Times