time bomb

A situation that threatens to have disastrous consequences at some future time, as in That departmental dispute is a time bomb just waiting to go off. This term alludes to an explosive device that is set to go off at a specific time. [First half of 1900s]

Common Names:

Name	Pronounced	Usage
Nell	[nel]
Edgardo	ed-GAHR-do	Spanish, Italian
Dragan	-	Serbian, Croatian, Slovene, Macedonian, Bulgarian
Lazer	-	Yiddish
Lanny	['læni]
Gertruida	-	Dutch