powder keg
Americannoun
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a small, metal, barrellike container for gunpowder or blasting powder.
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a potentially dangerous situation, especially one involving violent repercussions.
noun
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a small barrel used to hold gunpowder
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informal a potential source or scene of violence, disaster, etc
Etymology
Origin of powder keg
First recorded in 1850–55
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
In 1768 King George III filled Boston with armed troops, creating a powder keg; in two years the spark of a single rifle shot would explode the Boston Massacre.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 27, 2026
The career soldier, who in 2021 collaborated with Daglo to oust civilians from a transitional government, wrote on Wednesday: "I long recognised that the RSF was a powder keg."
From Barron's ● Nov. 26, 2025
Dahlia Lithwick: I find the public-facing discourse around shootings to be impoverished, dangerous, and a powder keg on its own terms.
From Slate ● Sep. 12, 2025
"It's a powder keg now and we need to get something done and we need the Home Office to listen," he added.
From BBC ● Jul. 22, 2025
The President saw it too and the matter did not amuse him, for he realized it could be the detonator that would set off the powder keg on which his government was delicately perched.
From "The House of the Spirits: A Novel" by Isabel Allende
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
