Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A metal box for holding tinder.
- noun A potentially explosive place or situation.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A small container containing
flint ,steel , andtinder (dry, finely-divided fibrous matter), once used to helpkindle afire . - noun by extension a place that is so
dry andhot that there is danger offire . - noun by extension a potentially
dangerous situation.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a dangerous state of affairs; a situation that is a potential source of violence
- noun a box for holding tinder
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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All homes in tinderbox zones should be designed so that the likelihood of fires spreading to other homes is reduced.
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All homes in tinderbox zones should be designed so that the likelihood of fires spreading to other homes is reduced.
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George Clooney travelled to Sudan as part of an international effort to defuse the short term tinderbox of a controversial poll.
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The tinderbox is a system set up 40 years ago to make changes in the Legislature-approved budget when lawmakers aren't in session.
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Years of drought in the Tehachapi area, along with tree diseases and bugs among the foothills 'pine and chaparral, have turned the area into a "tinderbox," said county fire Battalion Chief David Goodell.
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And the president should have done it earlier, is lay out what kind of tinderbox situation we have in the Middle East.
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MARTIN: You know, similarly, Mary Kate, your former boss, in the days after the Los Angeles riots in the wake of the Rodney King verdict, also, you know, faced a similar, it's not quite the same thing, but a very sort of similar kind of tinderbox situation.
NPR Topics: News 2011
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MARTIN: You know, similarly, Mary Kate, your former boss, in the days after the Los Angeles riots in the wake of the Rodney King verdict, also, you know, faced a similar, it's not quite the same thing, but a very sort of similar kind of tinderbox situation.
NPR Topics: News 2011
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Years of drought in the Tehachapi area, along with tree diseases and bugs among the foothills 'pine and chaparral, have turned the area into a "tinderbox," said county fire Battalion Chief
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Years of drought, along with tree diseases and bugs among the foothills 'pine and chaparral, have turned the area into a "tinderbox," Goodell said.
treeseed commented on the word tinderbox
Historically, a tinderbox is a small container containing flint, steel, and dry, finely-divided fibrous matter (such as straw), used together to help kindle a fire. Tinderboxes fell out of general usage when matches were invented.
_Wikipedia
February 24, 2008
bilby commented on the word tinderbox
"The surge-ified, 'less violent' Iraq that the general has presided over so confidently is, in fact, a chaotic, violent tinderbox of city states, proliferating militias armed to the teeth, competing regions armed to the teeth, and competing religious factions armed to the teeth. Worse yet, under Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker, the U.S. has been the great proliferator. It has armed and funded close to 100,000 Sunnis organized into militias reportedly intent on someday destroying 'the Iranians' (i.e. the Maliki government). It has also supported Shiite militias (aka the Iraqi army). In the recent offensive, it took sides in a churning Shiite civil war."
- 'General Entrap-Us or General Entrapped?', Ira Chernus, 6 April 2008.
April 7, 2008
Prolagus commented on the word tinderbox
(The life pursuit, by Belle and Sebastian)
November 10, 2010