- Historical a metal box for holding tinder, flint, and steel for starting a fire
- any highly flammable object, structure, etc.
- a place or situation likely to be the source of a flare-up of trouble, war, etc.
tinderbox
tin·der·boxWebster's New World College Dictionary, Fifth Edition Copyright © 2014 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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"tinderbox." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 11 April 2019. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/tinderbox>.
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tinderbox. (n.d.). Retrieved April 11th, 2019, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/tinderbox
tinderbox
noun
- A metal box for holding tinder.
- A potentially explosive place or situation: referred to the crowded prison as a tinderbox of suppressed violence.
THE AMERICAN HERITAGE® DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, FIFTH EDITION by the Editors of the American Heritage Dictionaries. Copyright © 2016, 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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MLA Style
"tinderbox." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 11 April 2019. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/tinderbox>.
APA Style
tinderbox. (n.d.). Retrieved April 11th, 2019, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/tinderbox
English Wiktionary. Available under CC-BY-SA license.
Link to this page
Cite this page
MLA Style
"tinderbox." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 11 April 2019. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/tinderbox>.
APA Style
tinderbox. (n.d.). Retrieved April 11th, 2019, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/tinderbox
