safety valve
a device that, when actuated by a gas or vapor pressure above a predetermined level, opens and allows the gas or vapor to escape until its pressure is reduced to a pressure equal to or below that of the predetermined level.: Compare relief valve.
a harmless outlet for emotion, tension, etc.
Origin of safety valve
1Words Nearby safety valve
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use safety valve in a sentence
Coffee aficionados who monitor the temperature of their coffee drinks like the safety valve of a nuclear reactor will probably be happier with hot milk.
According to a company report, when water gushed into a drum holding hot coke — an oil byproduct — the reaction triggered a safety valve that relieved the pressure.
The island where it rained oil | Juliet Eilperin, Darryl Fears, Salwan Georges | March 25, 2021 | Washington PostThe field hospital was built, in part, as a safety valve for times like this.
Inside a Rhode Island field hospital, preparing for the worst of the pandemic | Lenny Bernstein | December 26, 2020 | Washington PostThis safety valve allows citizens to sound the alarm and challenge those whose views are hateful and totalitarian.
The Opponents of Militant Islamism Are Often As Bigoted as Their Targets | Jacob Mchangama | December 7, 2013 | THE DAILY BEAST[W] thout an exchange-rate safety valve you need an alternate way to rebalance economies.
A feed-pump forced water into the boilers; each had a safety-valve with a lever and weight.
Life of Richard Trevithick, Volume II (of 2) | Francis TrevithickThe engine boy having fixed the safety-valve while he fished for eels, caused an explosion of the boiler.
Life of Richard Trevithick, Volume II (of 2) | Francis TrevithickBut Judge Leslie understood and had much sympathy for his pupil—possibly believed in the virtue of the safety-valve.
Ancestors | Gertrude AthertonVariance appeared to be necessary to their existence; a safety-valve, for the ill humors they could not throw out upon others.
Alone | Marion HarlandThese he set in the embers, by the side of the former, first opening a safety-valve in each.
British Dictionary definitions for safety valve
a valve in a pressure vessel that allows fluid to escape when a predetermined level of pressure has been reached
a harmless outlet for emotion, energy, tension, etc
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
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