Definition of "tinderbox" [tinderbox]

• A metal box for holding tinder. (noun)
• A potentially explosive place or situation: referred to the crowded prison as a tinderbox of suppressed violence. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "All homes in tinderbox zones should be designed so that the likelihood of fires spreading to other homes is reduced."
• "George Clooney travelled to Sudan as part of an international effort to defuse the short term tinderbox of a controversial poll."
• "The tinderbox is a system set up 40 years ago to make changes in the Legislature-approved budget when lawmakers aren't in session."