1.
If someone is experiencing something very unpleasant or emotionally painful, you can say that they are in the ~ of it, especially when it is in its final stages. (FORMAL)
...when the country was going through the final ~ of civil war.
N-PLURAL: usu prep N, N of n
2.
If you are in the ~ of doing or experiencing something, especially something difficult, you are busy doing it or are deeply involved in it. (FORMAL)
The country is in the ~ of a general election...
PREP-PHRASE
3.
see also death ~