English
trial by fire
Noun

trial by fire

  1. A test in which a person is exposed to flames in order to assess his/her truthfulness, commitment, courage, etc.
    • “It is true, Messer Segretario,” said the shopkeeper, with subdued impatience. “But will you favour us by interpreting the Latin?”
      “Assuredly,” said Tito. “It does but express the conclusions or doctrines which the Frate specially teaches, and which the trial by fire is to prove true or false.”
  2. A situation in which a soldier or other combatant faces the discharge of opposing weapons, as a test of his or her fortitude.
    • 1939 Sept. 8, "[http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=shkxAAAAIBAJ&sjid=qeEFAAAAIBAJ&pg=4659,1348191&dq=trial-by-fire&hl=en Swiss Hear Heavy Guns]," Reading Eagle (USA), p. 8 (retrieved 15 July 2012):
      French troops, submitting to a trial by fire, drew toward the German forts, capturing and holding some machine-gun nests.
    • 1959 June 22, "[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,937836,00.html Cinema]," Time:
      Pork Chop Hill. Director Lewis Milestone . . . has produced a nerve-shattering study of how the American infantryman met his trial by fire in Korea.
  3. (idiomatic, by extension) Any ordeal which tests one's strength, endurance, or resolve.
    • 2001 June 18, Jessica Reaves, "[http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,131146,00.html Will Your Doctor Get More Reasonable Hours?]," Time:
      Now, residents' legendary 100+-hour workweek may be on its way out. . . . Some doctors insist the long hours are a necessary trial by fire that produces highly skilled, virtually unflappable physicians.
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