tinderbox
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English 5++LDOCE 5++tin·der·box /ˈtɪndəbɒks $ -dərbɑːks/ noun 1 [countable usually singular]PROBLEM a place or situation that is dangerous and where there could suddenly be a lot of fighting or problems 危机四伏的地区[形势] The area is a tinderbox that could again plunge the country into civil war. 这地区是个火药桶，很可能再次使国家陷入内战。2. [countable]DBURN a box containing things needed to make a flame, used in the past 〔旧时取火用的〕火绒盒
Examples from the Corpus
tinderbox• The refugee camps are a tinderbox waiting to catch fire.• Others plan to leave the Southwest for northern states untouched by the drought that has left Arizona a tinderbox.• They can go for years without rain there, and when that happens, the whole state turns into a tinderbox.• At the top of the cellar steps Broadman knelt down and fumbled in his tinderbox.• The Balkans have a long and tragically deserved reputation as a political tinderbox.tin·der·box nounChineseSyllable
dangerous Corpus situation and that a is or where place
tinderbox
tin‧der‧box /ˈtɪndəbɒks $ -dərbɑːks/
noun
1. [countable usually singular] a place or situation that is dangerous and where there could suddenly be a lot of fighting or problems:
The area is a tinderbox that could again plunge the country into civil war.
2. [countable] a box containing things needed to make a flame, used in the past
tin‧der‧box /ˈtɪndəbɒks $ -dərbɑːks/
noun1. [countable usually singular] a place or situation that is dangerous and where there could suddenly be a lot of fighting or problems:
2. [countable] a box containing things needed to make a flame, used in the past