Definition of Powder keg

1. Noun. A potentially explosive state.

Generic synonyms: Danger

2. Noun. Keg (usually made of metal) for gunpowder or blasting powder.
Generic synonyms: Keg

Definition of Powder keg

1. Noun. A barrel containing gunpowder. ¹

2. Noun. An explosive or otherwise volatile situation. ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Lexicographical Neighbors of Powder Keg

powan
powans
powder
powder-post termite
powder-posted
powder-puff
powder and shot
powder blue
powder blues
powder cap
powder caps
powder compact
powder flask
powder horn
powder hoy
powder keg
powder kegs
powder magazine
powder metallurgy
powder method
powder monkey
powder monkeys
powder one's nose
powder photography
powder puff
powder puffs
powder room
powder rooms
powder store
powder technique

Literary usage of Powder keg

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. Early Western Travels, 1748-1846: A Series of Annotated Reprints of Some of by Reuben Gold Thwaites (1905)
"... Exploits of a Mexican Army — How to make a Hole in a Powder-keg — The Apaches and their Character — Their Food — Novel Mode of settling Disputes — Range ..."

2. The Living Age by Making of America Project, Eliakim Littell, Robert S. Littell (1844)
"1940 POWDER-KEG X)NDER RUSSIA as 'peace-loving. ... Still, the government cannot get rid of that powder-keg on which it sits, mass grumbling. ..."

3. Washington and His Generals: Or, Legends of the Revolution by George Lippard (1847)
"Now watch the movements of that daughter. Silently she loads a rifle, silently she rests its barrel against the head of that powder keg, and then, ..."

4. Confront the Now Create the Future by Gyeorgos Ceres Hatonn (1995)
"KOREA--CHINA powder keg Good grief, don't you see the message from Korea? They are holding off burying the murdered leader for even longer so that he ..."

5. The Knickerbocker: Or, New-York Monthly Magazine by Charles Fenno Hoffman, Timothy Flint, Lewis Gaylord Clark, Kinahan Cornwallis, John Holmes Agnew (1846)
"Look your last at the moon, think your last of the sun : Straightway to the fire this powder-keg goes, And so to the devil it all of us blows ! ..."

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