tinderboxes

Noun

tinderbox (plural tinderboxes)

1. (historical) A small container containing flint, steel, and tinder (dry, finely-divided fibrous matter), once used to help kindle a fire.
   • 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.1922 February 2, James Joyce, “[Episode 1: Telemachus]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company […], →OCLC, part I [Telemachia], pages 19–20
2. (broadly) A place that is so dry and hot that there is danger of fire.
   • 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 spark1974, Harry Chapin, “What Made America Famous”, in Verities & Balderdash
3. (figuratively) A potentially dangerous situation.
   • 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.2010, H. S. Haskell, Sagebrush Or Gold Dust, page 291

   Synonyms:

   powder keg, powderkeg, powder magazine

See all 4 meanings of tinderbox