time bomb
noun
1
: a bomb so made as to explode at a predetermined time
2
: something with a potentially dangerous or detrimental delayed reaction
Examples of time bomb in a Sentence
He's a time bomb getting ready to explode.
If we don't do something about the pollution problem, we'll be sitting on a ticking time bomb.
Recent Examples on the Web
That would mean a country suffering from the particular malaise that’s afflicted Japan, Norway, the U.K. and elsewhere: an aging population with a dwindling worker base, essentially an economic ticking time bomb.
—
New York Daily News Editorial Board, New York Daily News, 17 Jan. 2025
In December 1990, officials in the federal agency tasked with regulating offshore oil and gas drilling received a memo with a dire warning: America faced a ticking time bomb of environmental liability from unplugged oil and gas wells, wrote the agency’s chief of staff.
—Mark Olalde, ProPublica, 30 Dec. 2024
Some Trump loyalists see the debt ceiling as a ticking time bomb, set to detonate in the middle of Trump's first year.
—Hans Nichols, Axios, 20 Dec. 2024
But as family trauma in Syria is expressed in long lists of names and multiple dimensions of torture and suffering, without justice, such diversity could be a ticking time bomb in a society fractured along many lines.
—Scott Peterson, The Christian Science Monitor, 31 Jan. 2025
See all Example Sentences for time bomb 
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New York Daily News Editorial Board, New York Daily News, 17 Jan. 2025
In December 1990, officials in the federal agency tasked with regulating offshore oil and gas drilling received a memo with a dire warning: America faced a ticking time bomb of environmental liability from unplugged oil and gas wells, wrote the agency’s chief of staff.
—Mark Olalde, ProPublica, 30 Dec. 2024
Some Trump loyalists see the debt ceiling as a ticking time bomb, set to detonate in the middle of Trump's first year.
—Hans Nichols, Axios, 20 Dec. 2024
But as family trauma in Syria is expressed in long lists of names and multiple dimensions of torture and suffering, without justice, such diversity could be a ticking time bomb in a society fractured along many lines.
—Scott Peterson, The Christian Science Monitor, 31 Jan. 2025
See all Example Sentences for time bomb
Dictionary Entries Near time bomb
Cite this Entry
“Time bomb.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/time%20bomb. Accessed 20 Feb. 2025.
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