be in the wars BrE informal

I'm thinking, young man, you have been in the wars.

What was certain was that it had been in the wars.

I don't know your face, though it seems that you have been in the wars,' and he laughed.

'You certainly seem to have been in the wars,' he said.

"Your wheel-house would appear to have been in the wars, Major.

Toby Farrar's wife would think he had been in the wars.

You have been in the wars!'

Sir, we have been in the wars together, and I have seen many a brave following but never such a set of woodland boys as this.

Royale needed no such adventitious aids to advertise the fact that he had been in the wars.

That honour went to the Phoenix, which despite having been in the wars, returned a very respectable Power Index of 11,857.

Hackett remarks, "Ah, you have been in the wars, too, I see," leaning forward and inspecting the stranger's feet.

'But,' he went on, looking at the youth, 'I am afraid you have been in the wars.'

When he saw the many scars he said politely, "Dear me, you do seem to have been in the wars, Mr. Bond."

In the smoking-room he said, 'Your Padeen looks as if he had been in the wars.

He had his knapsack on his back and a saber by his side, for he had been in the wars, and now he wanted to go home.

Jack was taller than Queenie and far more than twice as heavy; and having been in the wars for a great while and much battered, he now looked older.

Alien had been in the wars again and the damage that had been inflicted on him this time at least matched up to the injuries he'd received that morning.

A soldier who has been in the wars, as your excellency well knows, is not particular about his lodgings: provided I have a snug dungeon and regular rations, I shall manage to make myself comfortable.

It is not princely, but it is something for an old soldier of fortune who hath been in the wars for five-and-thirty years, and foresees the time when his limbs will grow stiff in his harness.

I saw that I should have to make my bed on the naked plain, with my knapsack for a pillow; but your excellency is an old soldier, and knows that to one who has been in the wars, such a night's lodging is no great hardship."

It was all for them, it revolved around them, only really made sense if they were here, and that itself was a kind of power (as well as a comfort - he liked to feel he was, as he had been in the Wars, part of an elite).