powder keg

noun
1.
a small, metal, barrellike container for gunpowder or blasting powder.
2.
a potentially dangerous situation, especially one involving violent repercussions.

Origin:
1850–55

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
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Collins
World English Dictionary
powder keg
 
n
1.  a small barrel used to hold gunpowder
2.  informal a potential source or scene of violence, disaster, etc

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
Cite This Source
00:10
Powder keg is always a great word to know.
So is gobo. Does it mean:
a screen or mat covered with a dark material for shielding a camera lens from excess light or glare.
a stew of meat, vegetables, potatoes, etc.
Example sentences
These movements of plants and animals across state and national boundaries are
  creating an ecological powder keg.
In bad times, the tight ethnic jumble of the city can be a powder keg.
He symbolizes the seething mood of a country that the film suggests is a powder
  keg of discontent and alienation.
It seems to me that you are sitting there on a real powder keg with what can
  happen in your leakers.
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