front line

• front-line (in attributive use), frontline

front line (plural front lines)

1. (military) A front, or a boundary between opposing positions.
2. (by extension) A site of a conflict, effort, or controversial matter of any kind.
   • 2004 December 20, “Reading problems? It's time to consider phonics”, in Chicago Tribune:

     With such results possible on the front line of teaching, the only question remaining is whether much of the education industry will overcome its ....

   • 2023 July 10, James Poniewozik, “The Twitter Watch Party Is Over”, in The New York Times‎:

     With Donald J. Trump in office, using Twitter as a cattle prod to shock the country to attention multiple times a day there was a sense that every day on the site was a battle. That attitude was reflected in users who saw themselves as soldiers, eternally fighting to shift the front lines of the discourse an inch or two in the correct direction.

3. The site of interaction with outsiders, such as customers.
   • 1990 July 1, “The performing art of service management.”, in Management Review:

     As one front line worker expressed it in a focus group, good managers "have a way about them" that makes them credible to others. ...

   • 2025 July 23, Richard Foster, “Huddersfield's overdue makeover”, in RAIL, number 1040, page 36:

     And that's not all - the historic timber tea room has been dismantled to allow the platforms to be altered. The tea room - one of the few timber station buildings still in front line service - will then be painstakingly rebuilt, but in a slightly different position.

4. (euphemistic) A low level.
   • 1949 September 27, “Field's Holds its Workers in High Respect”, in Chicago Tribune:

     Each of us, from top brass down to the front line worker, wishes to feel the satisfaction of doing something worth while and doing it well.

5. (soccer) attack, collectively the attackers or forwards.
   • 2011 January 25, Paul Fletcher, “Arsenal 3 - 0 Ipswich (agg 3 - 1)”, in BBC‎:

     The home team eventually started to unpick the Town defence and Fabregas forced a saved from visiting goalkeeper Marton Fulop after collecting a pass from Bendtner, who played on the right side of the front line.

• (low-level work): the trenches, coalface

• (antonym(s) of “soccer”): back line

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