"powder keg" meaning in English

See powder keg in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Audio: En-au-powder keg.ogg Forms: powder kegs [plural]
Head templates: {{en-noun}} powder keg (plural powder kegs)
  1. A barrel containing gunpowder. Synonyms: tinderbox [figuratively], powderkeg Translations (barrel of gun powder): bolborategi (Basque), 火藥桶 /火药桶 (huǒyàotǒng) (Chinese Mandarin), krudttønde [common-gender] (Danish), tønde krudt [common-gender] (Danish), ruutitynnyri (Finnish), poudrière [feminine] (French), Pulverfass [neuter] (German), puskaporos hordó (Hungarian), púðurtunna [feminine] (Icelandic), polveriera [feminine] (Italian), beczka prochu [feminine] (Polish), barril de pólvora (Portuguese), порохова́я бо́чка (poroxovája bóčka) [feminine] (Russian), polvorín [masculine] (Spanish), kruttunna [common-gender] (Swedish), бочка для пороху (bočka dlja poroxu) [feminine] (Ukrainian)
    Sense id: en-powder_keg-en-noun-~W46W6n0 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Entries with translation boxes, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries, Terms with Basque translations, Terms with Danish translations, Terms with Finnish translations, Terms with French translations, Terms with German translations, Terms with Hungarian translations, Terms with Icelandic translations, Terms with Italian translations, Terms with Macedonian translations, Terms with Mandarin translations, Terms with Polish translations, Terms with Portuguese translations, Terms with Russian translations, Terms with Spanish translations, Terms with Swedish translations, Terms with Ukrainian translations Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 83 17 Disambiguation of Entries with translation boxes: 93 7 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 92 8 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 96 4 Disambiguation of Terms with Basque translations: 90 10 Disambiguation of Terms with Danish translations: 90 10 Disambiguation of Terms with Finnish translations: 90 10 Disambiguation of Terms with French translations: 94 6 Disambiguation of Terms with German translations: 88 12 Disambiguation of Terms with Hungarian translations: 72 28 Disambiguation of Terms with Icelandic translations: 90 10 Disambiguation of Terms with Italian translations: 93 7 Disambiguation of Terms with Macedonian translations: 90 10 Disambiguation of Terms with Mandarin translations: 77 23 Disambiguation of Terms with Polish translations: 90 10 Disambiguation of Terms with Portuguese translations: 90 10 Disambiguation of Terms with Russian translations: 93 7 Disambiguation of Terms with Spanish translations: 96 4 Disambiguation of Terms with Swedish translations: 91 9 Disambiguation of Terms with Ukrainian translations: 90 10 Disambiguation of 'barrel of gun powder': 95 5
  2. (figuratively) An explosive or otherwise volatile situation. Tags: figuratively Translations (volatile situation): 火藥桶 /火药桶 (huǒyàotǒng) (Chinese Mandarin), krudttønde [common-gender] (Danish), ruutitynnyri (Finnish), poudrière [feminine] (French), Pulverfass [neuter] (German), púðurtunna [feminine] (Icelandic), polveriera [feminine] (Italian), буре барут (bure barut) [neuter] (Macedonian), beczka prochu [feminine] (Polish), порохова́я бо́чка (poroxovája bóčka) [feminine] (Russian), polvorín [masculine] (Spanish), krutdurk [common-gender] (Swedish), порохова́ бо́чка (poroxová bóčka) [feminine] (Ukrainian)
    Sense id: en-powder_keg-en-noun-hBrKaHvx Disambiguation of 'volatile situation': 2 98

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

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        "A barrel containing gunpowder."
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      "id": "en-powder_keg-en-noun-~W46W6n0",
      "links": [
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          "barrel",
          "barrel"
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      "synonyms": [
        {
          "_dis1": "77 23",
          "tags": [
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          ],
          "word": "tinderbox"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "77 23",
          "word": "powderkeg"
        }
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "_dis1": "95 5",
          "code": "eu",
          "lang": "Basque",
          "sense": "barrel of gun powder",
          "word": "bolborategi"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "95 5",
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "roman": "huǒyàotǒng",
          "sense": "barrel of gun powder",
          "word": "火藥桶 /火药桶"
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          "sense": "barrel of gun powder",
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          "_dis1": "95 5",
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          "sense": "barrel of gun powder",
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          "sense": "barrel of gun powder",
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          "sense": "barrel of gun powder",
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          "sense": "barrel of gun powder",
          "word": "puskaporos hordó"
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          "sense": "barrel of gun powder",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
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        },
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          "code": "it",
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          "sense": "barrel of gun powder",
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        },
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          "sense": "barrel of gun powder",
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            "feminine"
          ],
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          "roman": "poroxovája bóčka",
          "sense": "barrel of gun powder",
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            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "порохова́я бо́чка"
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          "sense": "barrel of gun powder",
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          "roman": "bočka dlja poroxu",
          "sense": "barrel of gun powder",
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            "feminine"
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        "(figuratively) An explosive or otherwise volatile situation."
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          "_dis1": "2 98",
          "code": "da",
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          "sense": "volatile situation",
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          "word": "krudttønde"
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          "code": "mk",
          "lang": "Macedonian",
          "roman": "bure barut",
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          "word": "буре барут"
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          "roman": "poroxovája bóčka",
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          "roman": "poroxová bóčka",
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      "sense": "barrel of gun powder",
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      "code": "hu",
      "lang": "Hungarian",
      "sense": "barrel of gun powder",
      "word": "puskaporos hordó"
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      "code": "is",
      "lang": "Icelandic",
      "sense": "barrel of gun powder",
      "tags": [
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      "word": "púðurtunna"
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      "code": "it",
      "lang": "Italian",
      "sense": "barrel of gun powder",
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      "code": "pl",
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      "sense": "barrel of gun powder",
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      "code": "uk",
      "lang": "Ukrainian",
      "roman": "bočka dlja poroxu",
      "sense": "barrel of gun powder",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "бочка для пороху"
    },
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      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "roman": "huǒyàotǒng",
      "sense": "volatile situation",
      "word": "火藥桶 /火药桶"
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      "code": "da",
      "lang": "Danish",
      "sense": "volatile situation",
      "tags": [
        "common-gender"
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      "word": "krudttønde"
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      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "volatile situation",
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      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "volatile situation",
      "tags": [
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      "word": "poudrière"
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      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "volatile situation",
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      "sense": "volatile situation",
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      "sense": "volatile situation",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
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      "word": "polveriera"
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      "code": "mk",
      "lang": "Macedonian",
      "roman": "bure barut",
      "sense": "volatile situation",
      "tags": [
        "neuter"
      ],
      "word": "буре барут"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "volatile situation",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "beczka prochu"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "poroxovája bóčka",
      "sense": "volatile situation",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "порохова́я бо́чка"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "volatile situation",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "polvorín"
    },
    {
      "code": "sv",
      "lang": "Swedish",
      "sense": "volatile situation",
      "tags": [
        "common-gender"
      ],
      "word": "krutdurk"
    },
    {
      "code": "uk",
      "lang": "Ukrainian",
      "roman": "poroxová bóčka",
      "sense": "volatile situation",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "порохова́ бо́чка"
    }
  ],
  "wikipedia": [
    "powder keg"
  ],
  "word": "powder keg"
}

Download raw JSONL data for powder keg meaning in English (5.4kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-01-13 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-01-01 using wiktextract (4ba5975 and 4ed51a5). 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.