Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A small cask for holding gunpowder or other explosives.
- noun A potentially explosive situation or thing.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A
barrel containinggunpowder . - noun An
explosive or otherwisevolatile situation .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a potentially explosive state
- noun keg (usually made of metal) for gunpowder or blasting powder
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word powder keg.
Examples
Sorry, no example sentences found.
abraxaszugzwang commented on the word powder keg
My love is like a powder keg.
My love is like a powder keg in the corner
of an empty warehouse
Somewhere just outside of town
About to burn down
~The Mountain Goats
February 13, 2007