Meaning
In the position most exposed to attack, blame, or dismissal; the person or group at whom criticism is aimed. British English prefers 'in the firing line' and American English usually has 'on the firing line'. A separate literal sense, the line of shooters on a rifle range, survives in shooting sports. Common in news and workplace contexts; slightly more formal than its near-synonym 'in the line of fire'. Regional use: British English 'in', American English 'on'; military origin.
Origin
The noun firing line was first recorded in 1839 as a military-engineering term for a long fuse laid to fire a mine; in the 1850s it acquired the two senses behind the idiom: the front line of troops from which fire is delivered in battle, and the line on a rifle range from which shooters fire. The figurative idiom rests on the front-line image, the troops at the point of contact facing enemy shot, which maps naturally onto being the person public blame is aimed at, as in Cambridge's definition 'likely to be criticized, attacked, or got rid of' and Merriam-Webster's 'in a place or position not protected from attack or criticism'. The popular association with an execution firing squad is a folk embellishment rather than the documented derivation, which belongs to battlefield and range.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- be in the firing line
- in the line of fire
- on the firing line (US)
- put someone in the firing line
Usage Examples
- Front-line supervisors are in the firing line whenever a new round of job cuts is announced.
- By naming the directors individually, the regulator put the whole board in the firing line.
- After years as the company's spokesperson, she is unbothered by life in the firing line.