Tinderbox
name, noun ·3 syllables ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A small container containing flint, steel, and tinder (dry, finely-divided fibrous matter), once used to help kindle a fire. historical
"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."
- 2 a box for holding tinder wordnet
- 3 A place that is so dry and hot that there is danger of fire. broadly
"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"
- 4 a dangerous state of affairs; a situation that is a potential source of violence wordnet
- 5 A potentially dangerous situation. figuratively
"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."
- 1 A suburb of Kingborough council area, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia.
Example
More examples"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."
Etymology
From tinder + box, first use appears c. 1530, in the writings of John Palsgrave.
Related phrases
More for "tinderbox"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.