pressure cooker
Americannoun
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a reinforced pot, usually of steel or aluminum, in which soups, meats, vegetables, etc., may be cooked quickly in heat above boiling point by steam maintained under pressure.
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any situation, job, assignment, etc., in which a person is faced with urgent responsibilities or demands by other people, constant deadlines, or a hectic work schedule.
noun
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a strong hermetically sealed pot in which food may be cooked quickly under pressure at a temperature above the normal boiling point of water
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informal a trainee student attending a shortened qualifying course
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of pressure cooker
First recorded in 1910–15
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.
Tax preparation is a seasonal business — and a hectic pressure cooker.
From MarketWatch ● Mar. 13, 2026
Shale drillers have turned the biggest oil field in the U.S. into a pressure cooker that is literally bursting at the seams.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 26, 2025
Human beings weren’t meant to create art in this particular kind of pressure cooker.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 17, 2025
This win is an important hurdle to overcome, one which should serve them well with the pressure cooker turning up a notch from now on.
From BBC ● Oct. 19, 2025
Four eyes in two hulking bodies; they put me in a pressure cooker.
From "How It Went Down" by Kekla Magoon
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.
