salt mine

American  

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.

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Etymology

Origin of salt mine

First recorded in 1675–85

Example Sentences

Found by the Allies in the salt mine at Bad-Aussee, they were returned to Czech authorities at the end of the war, only to be appropriated by the state during the Communist era.

From The Wall Street Journal

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