under fire

under fire

1. Subjected to enemy attack with firearms.
2. (figuratively) Criticized or held responsible for something.
   • 1863, Sheridan Le Fanu, The House by the Churchyard

     The clerk had, I'm afraid, a shrew of a wife—shrill, vehement, and fluent. […] He had learned, by long experience, the best tactique under fire: he became actually taciturn; or, if he spoke, his speech was laconic and enigmatical; sometimes throwing out a proverb, and sometimes a text; and sometimes when provoked past endurance, spouting mildly a little bit of meek and venomous irony.

   • 2009, Michael O'Connor, Quadrant, November 2009, No. 461 (Volume LIII, Number 11), Quadrant Magazine Limited, page 2:

     Meanwhile, the government's own Human Services department is under fire from the Ombudsman for its failure to protect children in its care.