to the lions
3
9.6
- idiom
- Informal
:
a los leones
- We're gonna feed the bastard to the lions.
- thrown to the lions
- fed to the lions
Examples
-
Participants in our focus groups reported that they felt "thrown to the lions" and did not have adequate training prior to starting to teach online.
Academic text (2014) -
That's pretty much throwing the peasants to the lions; you know what I'm saying?
Blog text (24) -
You're not being thrown to the lions anymore.
Blog text (19) -
You haven't been thrown to the lions for almost 2,000 years.
Blog text (19) -
He writes, "Under Caesar they had cheered while Christians were fed to the lions, and under Hitler while Jews were reduced to charred remains" (1-2).
Academic text (2014) -
She felt like she was being to the lions when her boss assigned her a difficult project without any guidance.
-
By not preparing her for the meeting, they were effectively to the lions and leaving her vulnerable to tough questions.
-
When the new employee was told to present in front of the executives without training, it was clear they had been to the lions.
Synonyms
1
7.8
Put suddenly into a difficult situation without preparation or help
How Exposed
Surface Forms
Morphology
to + the + lion
The constituent words ('to', 'the', 'lion') give a clear literal sense of being delivered to a dangerous animal, so learners can infer a general idea of danger or exposure. However, the conventionalized figurative meaning (being exposed to severe criticism or difficulty, often without support) and its pragmatic nuance are not fully predictable from the parts alone, and this phrase is normally understood as a clipped idiom of 'throw someone to the lions', so a B1 learner would only partially infer the exact intended meaning.
Etymology
To the lions comes from old stories of public arenas where people were sometimes thrown into the ring and attacked by hungry lions, and the frightening picture of being left alone to suffer explains the phrase. So, that image is why it now means 'to face severe criticism, difficulty, or danger' without help.