tinderbox

See also: tinder-box and tinder box

English

Alternative forms

tinder-box, tinder box

Etymology

From tinder +‎ box, first use appears c. 1530, in the writings of John Palsgrave.

Noun

tinderbox (plural tinderboxes)

(historical) A small container containing flint, steel, and tinder (dry, finely-divided fibrous matter), once used to help kindle a fire.
- 1922 February, James Joyce, “[Episode 1: Telemachus]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC, part I [Telemachia], pages 19–20:
  Haines helped himself and snapped the case to. He put it back in his sidepocket and took from his waistcoatpocket a nickel tinderbox, sprang it open too, and, having lit his cigarette, held the flaming spunk towards Stephen in the shell of his hands.
- 2007, Stephen Mitchell, The Tinderbox, page 5:
  Just bring me the old tinderbox that my grandmother forgot the last time she went down there.
(by extension) A place that is so dry and hot that there is danger of fire.
- 1974, Harry Chapin (lyrics and music), “What Made America Famous”, in Verities & Balderdash:
  And then came the night that made America famous / Was it carelessness or someone's sick idea of a joke? / In the tinderbox trap that we hippies lived in, someone struck a spark
- 2010, L. K. Ludwig, Creative Wildfire: An Introduction to Art Journaling, page 30:
  Think of your blank journal as a tinderbox, a box for holding combustible materials, ready to catch fire when you sit down to work.
(figurative) A potentially dangerous situation.
- 2010, H. S. Haskell, Sagebrush Or Gold Dust, page 291:
  This act was the "match that ignited the great tinderbox of fuel" that had been building for years between many of the countries in Europe.

Synonyms

(potentially dangerous situation): powder keg, powderkeg, powder magazine

Hypernyms

box

Translations

small container containing flint, steel, and tinder

Burmese: မီးခတ် (my) (mi:hkat)
Czech: křesadlo (cs) n
Dutch: tondeldoos (nl) f
Finnish: tuluskukkaro (fi)
Galician: esqueiro (gl) m
German: Zunderbüchse f, Feuerzeug (de) n
Japanese: 火口箱 (ほくちばこ, hokuchibako)
Macedonian: борина f (borina)
Manx: kishtey sponk m
Navajo: woolkʼą́ą́h
Russian: огни́во (ru) n (ognívo)
Slovak: kresadlo n
Spanish: yesquero (es) m
Swedish: elddon n, fnöskdosa c
Udmurt: тылкорт (tylkort)

potentially dangerous situation

Chinese:
Mandarin: 火藥桶 / 火药桶 (zh) (huǒyào tǒng)
Dutch: kruitvat (nl) n
Finnish: ruutitynnyri
French: poudrière (fr) f
German: Pulverfass (de) n
Italian: polveriera (it) f
Macedonian: буре барут n (bure barut)
Polish: beczka prochu f
Russian: порохова́я бо́чка (ru) f (poroxovája bóčka)
Spanish: polvorín m
Swedish: krutdurk (sv) c
Ukrainian: порохова́ бо́чка f (poroxová bóčka)