time bomb

Definitions

1. A bomb that has a mechanism such that detonation can be preset to a particular time.
2. A malicious program designed to perform a destructive action at a certain date or time.
3. A situation that threatens to have disastrous consequences at some future time.
   figuratively

Equivalents

Examples

“At 9.40 a.m. on Bank Holiday Monday, August 5, a ganger found what was thought to be a time bomb at a level crossing at Tempsford, near Biggleswade, Bedfordshire, […] Inside one box was a brick; the other contained the works of an old alarm clock.”

“Donald Gene Burleson was prosecuted on felony charges for planting a time bomb that, shortly after he was fired, deleted more than 168,000 brokerage records of USPA & IRA in Fort Worth, Texas.”

“Even so, they managed to morph the recent European parliamentary elections into a time bomb and plant⟳ it under their country’s own⟳ future.”

“Someone must explain⟳ to Sunak about the time bomb ticking beneath his £1,000 loafers.”

“The pandemic preparation timebomb detonated to devastating effect; a number⟳ of other timebombs are on the shortest of fuses. The government has now reached a state of perfect vicious cycle, when the only thing worse than the things it does are all the things it didn’t get⟳ round to doing.”

CEFR level