bear the brunt

bear the brunt idiom
Put up with the worst of some bad circumstance, as in It was the secretary who had to bear the brunt of the doctor's anger. This idiom uses brunt in the sense of “the main force of an enemy's attack,” which was sustained by the front lines of the defenders. [Second half of 1700s]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

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