Definition of "powder-magazine" [powder-magazine]

• A place where powder is stored, as a bombproof building in fortified places, etc. (noun)
• A specially constructed place on board a man-of-war for the storage and issue of explosives. See magazine, 1. (noun)

The Century Dictionary (Public Domain)

• "“Elector” blew up, at a quarter past three P.M., by a lucky shot which fell into her caboose, and communicated with the powder-magazine, that Commodore Bowie was enabled to lay himself on board the “Dettingen,” which he carried sword in hand."
• "A little spark falling by accident into a powder-magazine, hath done more execution in a siege, than an hundred cannon."
• "We are in the condition of passengers whose ship is devoured by a conflagration which they cannot extinguish, and who know that sooner or later the flames must reach the powder-magazine."