thrown to the lions

Cultural

Figuratively, to be thrown to the lions is to be placed in a difficult situation for which one is completely unprepared: “To put that new teacher in front of those unruly students is to throw her to the lions.” During the Roman persecutions, Christians (see also Christian) were thrown to the lions in the Colosseum.

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

She said she wanted to walk out of court as she was about to step into the witness box as she felt she had been "thrown to the lions".

From BBC • Jul. 9, 2023

As David Brooks says, we have created a “coliseum culture” in which some new celebrity gets thrown to the lions on a weekly basis.

From Time • Jul. 8, 2015

Commentators largely sided with him during his 2010 extradition debacle, denouncing a "prurient hounding" and lamenting him being "thrown to the lions because of ancient history".

From The Guardian • Jul. 25, 2013

His colleague, Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand, said Polanski was being "thrown to the lions for an old story that doesn't really make any sense."

From Washington Post • Jul. 12, 2010

Higgs told me," he said, "that he was to be thrown to the lions two hours after moonrise, which is within fifteen minutes or so.

From Queen Sheba's Ring by Haggard, Henry Rider

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023