time bomb
a bomb constructed so as to explode at a certain time.
a situation, condition, etc., resembling such a bomb in having disastrous consequences in the future.
Origin of time bomb
1Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use time bomb in a sentence
I think that embedded in these agreements are three ticking time bombs that could blow them to smithereens.
There might be, hidden somewhere in the cargo-holds, time-bombs set to explode at a given moment.
Ruth Fielding Homeward Bound | Alice B. EmersonThen your notion would be to plant time bombs at the factories so they will go off in the night?
Ted and the Telephone | Sara Ware BassettAll the proud thousands of the defense fleet were gone, blown to fragments by the time bombs from above.
When the Sleepers Woke | Arthur Leo Zagat
British Dictionary definitions for time bomb
a bomb containing a timing mechanism that determines the time at which it will detonate
a situation which, if allowed to continue, will develop into a serious problem
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Other Idioms and Phrases with time bomb
A situation that threatens to have disastrous consequences at some future time, as in That departmental dispute is a time bomb just waiting to go off. This term alludes to an explosive device that is set to go off at a specific time. [First half of 1900s]
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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