salt mine
4
4.0
- noun
- /sɔlt maɪn/
:
mina de sal
- "Well, it's off to the salt mines," she said.
- back to the salt mine
- deep in the salt mine
- day at the salt mine
Finished his shift in a Peruvian salt mine.
- Finished his shift in a Peruvian salt mine.
Examples
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Detroit is built on top of a whole network of salt mines.
Fiction book (1999) -
How was your day at the salt mines?
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It's back to the salt mines we go.
Fiction book (2000) -
From there you will meet Colonel Mackle at the salt mines.
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In fact, I only just returned home from the salt mines, and tomorrow I'm off to Vegas for the weekend—for business, not
Blog text (14) -
The workers extracted rock salt from the enormous salt mine deep underground.
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Tourists visit the historical salt mine to learn about the traditional mining techniques used for centuries.
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In Poland, the famous salt mine features stunning underground chapels and sculptures carved from salt.
Synonyms
178
5.7
A hole in the ground where people dig for minerals like coal or gold
1
9.9
A place where people dig minerals from the ground
A place where people make salt to sell by drying sea water or mining
A place where people remove minerals from the ground now or in the past
How Industrial
Surface Forms
Morphology
salt + mine
The literal sense 'a mine where salt is extracted' is fully compositional from 'salt' + 'mine', and the figurative use likens an unpleasant workplace to the harsh conditions of a mine. A B1 learner who knows both words can probably infer this humorous/metaphorical meaning, but it requires mapping the property of hard, unpleasant labour rather than direct compositional meaning, so it is only partially predictable.
Etymology
Salt mine originally named the underground place where people dug out blocks of salt from the earth. Miners cut and carried the white salt out, and that's why the phrase means 'a mine from which salt is extracted' today.