|
Definition of Powder keg
1. Noun. A potentially explosive state.
2. Noun. Keg (usually made of metal) for gunpowder or blasting powder.
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
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 ! ..."