Time bomb

noun

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A bomb that has a mechanism such that detonation can be preset to a particular time.

    "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."

  2. 2
    a bomb that has a detonating mechanism that can be set to go off at a particular time wordnet
  3. 3
    A malicious program designed to perform a destructive action at a certain date or time.

    "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."

  4. 4
    a problematic situation that will eventually become dangerous if not addressed wordnet
  5. 5
    A situation that threatens to have disastrous consequences at some future time. figuratively

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

Etymology

From time + bomb.

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