"accident waiting to happen" meaning in English

See accident waiting to happen in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Audio: en-au-accident waiting to happen.ogg Forms: accidents waiting to happen [plural]
Etymology: Attested 1930s. Head templates: {{en-noun|accidents waiting to happen}} accident waiting to happen (plural accidents waiting to happen)
  1. (idiomatic) A thing or situation which is almost certain to eventually lead to an accident. Tags: idiomatic Derived forms: disaster waiting to happen, waiting to happen Related terms: court disaster, -in-waiting, time bomb, trainwreck in slow motion Translations (dangerous situation): onnettomuus, joka odottaa tapahtumistaan (Finnish)

Inflected forms

{
  "etymology_text": "Attested 1930s.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "accidents waiting to happen",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "accidents waiting to happen"
      },
      "expansion": "accident waiting to happen (plural accidents waiting to happen)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Entries with translation boxes",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Finnish translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "derived": [
        {
          "word": "disaster waiting to happen"
        },
        {
          "word": "waiting to happen"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Someone needs to repair that worn-out old bridge. It's an accident waiting to happen!",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2020 October 14, Phil McNulty, “England 0-1 Denmark: 'Harry Maguire looked devoid of confidence in Nations League loss'”, in BBC Sport:",
          "text": "Maguire looked totally devoid of confidence, a lost soul and an accident waiting to happen, which it eventually did.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A thing or situation which is almost certain to eventually lead to an accident."
      ],
      "id": "en-accident_waiting_to_happen-en-noun-MsBIGy97",
      "links": [
        [
          "accident",
          "accident"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) A thing or situation which is almost certain to eventually lead to an accident."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "court disaster"
        },
        {
          "word": "-in-waiting"
        },
        {
          "word": "time bomb"
        },
        {
          "word": "trainwreck in slow motion"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "dangerous situation",
          "word": "onnettomuus, joka odottaa tapahtumistaan"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "en-au-accident waiting to happen.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/b/b9/En-au-accident_waiting_to_happen.ogg/En-au-accident_waiting_to_happen.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b9/En-au-accident_waiting_to_happen.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "word": "accident waiting to happen"
}
{
  "derived": [
    {
      "word": "disaster waiting to happen"
    },
    {
      "word": "waiting to happen"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Attested 1930s.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "accidents waiting to happen",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "accidents waiting to happen"
      },
      "expansion": "accident waiting to happen (plural accidents waiting to happen)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "court disaster"
    },
    {
      "word": "-in-waiting"
    },
    {
      "word": "time bomb"
    },
    {
      "word": "trainwreck in slow motion"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English countable nouns",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English idioms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English nouns",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English terms with usage examples",
        "Entries with translation boxes",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries",
        "Terms with Finnish translations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Someone needs to repair that worn-out old bridge. It's an accident waiting to happen!",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2020 October 14, Phil McNulty, “England 0-1 Denmark: 'Harry Maguire looked devoid of confidence in Nations League loss'”, in BBC Sport:",
          "text": "Maguire looked totally devoid of confidence, a lost soul and an accident waiting to happen, which it eventually did.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A thing or situation which is almost certain to eventually lead to an accident."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "accident",
          "accident"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) A thing or situation which is almost certain to eventually lead to an accident."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "en-au-accident waiting to happen.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/b/b9/En-au-accident_waiting_to_happen.ogg/En-au-accident_waiting_to_happen.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b9/En-au-accident_waiting_to_happen.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "dangerous situation",
      "word": "onnettomuus, joka odottaa tapahtumistaan"
    }
  ],
  "word": "accident waiting to happen"
}

Download raw JSONL data for accident waiting to happen meaning in English (2.1kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-12-21 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-12-04 using wiktextract (d8cb2f3 and 4e554ae). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.