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

It has also been found in 3,000-year-old faeces preserved in a salt mine in Hallstatt, Austria -- which serves as one of the only other available views into the ancient human microbiome.

From Barron's • Jun. 3, 2026

The salt mine they worked for didn’t have modern equipment.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 13, 2026

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 • Dec. 7, 2024

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

From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 13, 2024

I felt trapped again, like I had felt under the floorboards and down in the salt mine.

From "Prisoner B-3087" by Alan Gratz