a powder keg

For a second thing, the town felt like a powder keg.

He'd been a powder keg ever since he arrived at her town house.

The inner city may very well be a powder keg.

He's a powder keg that can, and does, go off at any time.

The county was a powder keg waiting for a match.

For a while there he thought he'd set a match to a powder keg.

"It was a powder keg - you could see the fire pressure building up inside," he said.

This entire place, everything inside, is like a powder keg of current, I bet.

"You are sitting on a powder keg here," he said.

At the other end of the social scale, a powder keg was forming.

But the signs were right; that ship was a powder keg if ever I saw one.

"It's like a powder keg that has no clear trigger."

It has long been a powder keg, and we have drawn attention to this repeatedly.

"No one is going to admit they are a powder keg waiting to explode."

I've told people we've been sitting on a powder keg."

The party was sitting on a powder keg of internal disagreement which could go off at any moment.

Cautiously, he moved a powder keg to admit the daylight.

"Now everybody is sitting on a powder keg and ready to explode.

"It started cooking off like a powder keg," the pilot known as Neck said.

With so many temperaments thrown together, every office is a powder keg.

He looks like a powder keg, ready to explode.

Politically speaking, it was a powder keg of violence ready to explode.

So these people aren't really sitting on top of a powder keg."

"This place is like a powder keg and people are armed to the teeth.

Europe is a powder keg waiting to be lit.