How to Use powder keg in a Sentence

powder keg

noun
  • Political instability has made the region a powder keg.
  • The Pitt is starting to feel like a bit of a powder keg.
    — Maggie Fremont, Vulture, 13 Feb. 2026
  • There’s one by us that’s just a powder keg for class differences.
    — Lacey Rose, The Hollywood Reporter, 16 Aug. 2023
  • Forests across the West are now so overgrown they’ve been called powder kegs.
    — Washington Post, 16 Oct. 2017
  • And that’s just the powder keg that is the hospital itself.
    — Maggie Fremont, Vulture, 13 Feb. 2026
  • His idea of the perfect song was a powder keg giving off sparks, one that anybody could belt out loud.
    — Rob Sheffield, Rolling Stone, 21 Apr. 2021
  • Tichenor’s bad call lit a powder keg within Bogaerts that has been ready to blow for a while.
    — Peter Abraham, BostonGlobe.com, 19 Aug. 2022
  • Nellie keeping things bottled up was a powder keg waiting to blow.
    — Lizz Schumer, PEOPLE, 20 Jan. 2026
  • Oregon is a powder keg of militancy right now, and its fuse is now burning bright and hot.
    — Kim Kelly, The New Republic, 27 Sep. 2019
  • The region has historically been a powder keg and seems on the verge of more upheavals.
    — Jason Daley, Smithsonian, 8 Mar. 2018
  • The entire country was a messianic powder keg.
    — Literary Hub, 30 Sep. 2025
  • Though the powder keg image is powerful, in reality very few wars start this way.
    — Dan Reiter, Washington Post, 11 Jan. 2018
  • Sig unbuckled his seat belt, because the stiff nylon was adding pressure to a chest that already felt like a powder keg.
    — Bailey Richards, Peoplemag, 25 Sep. 2024
  • During that tour, just as now, America was raw and explosive, a powder keg.
    — Ryan Miller, The Atlantic, 10 Apr. 2025
  • One drug needle shared by someone with HIV could easily be the match to this powder keg.
    — Laura Ungar, The Courier-Journal, 14 Dec. 2017
  • Ferreira is the lone outsider, a friend of the youngest son, Johnny, who gets thrown into a powder keg of a holiday.
    — Kate Erbland, IndieWire, 15 Apr. 2026
  • There are several other emotional powder kegs that need one little spark, and those babies are going all the way off.
    — Maggie Fremont, Vulture, 13 Feb. 2026
  • This lack of accountability creates a powder keg.
    — Joshua Simmons, Sun Sentinel, 11 Feb. 2026
  • To be fair, the powder keg triumvirate of Kramer, Bangs and Marsh alone was a filmmaker’s dream.
    — John Benson, cleveland, 5 Aug. 2020
  • South of the Frisco Railroad tracks, though, white Tulsa was a racist powder keg waiting to explode.
    — Scott Cantrell, Dallas News, 3 June 2021
  • For most of its run time, Never Let Go slinks along slowly, but its final act explodes like a powder keg.
    — Laura Bradley, Vulture, 25 Sep. 2024
  • Her fluffy, frivolous style works well for Isla, who is a giggly pretty princess most of the time but a powder keg of anger when threatened.
    — Kelly Lawler, USA TODAY, 28 Feb. 2025
  • Wes accurately identifies that as the powder keg that made Rob turn on his fellow Traitor.
    — Tom Smyth, Vulture, 30 Jan. 2025
  • Or the new Iranian prowess could prove to be a powder keg that is ignited by reckless militants in one or more camps.
    — Dp Opinion, The Denver Post, 28 Oct. 2019
  • The switcheroo went off like a powder keg at City Hall, with officials rushing toward damage control.
    — Shomik Mukherjee, Mercury News, 1 Apr. 2025
  • Mamie’s testimony scene in the courtroom, for instance — a seven-page powder keg of grief, frustration and rage — is shot in one long take.
    — Sarah Bahr, New York Times, 24 Oct. 2022
  • But a powerful act of forgiveness on the part of the family diffused the powder keg of violence that was ready to explode.
    — A.r. Bernard Sr., Baltimore Sun, 19 Feb. 2024
  • Pressure grew Sunday to unite the country ahead of an election that has turned America into a powder keg.
    — Jessica Guynn, USA TODAY, 15 July 2024
  • That would be just a teaser for the human traffic jam inside the tunnel, though, a powder keg of drunk, impatient people jammed into a too-small egress.
    — Dylan Owens, The Know, 9 June 2019
  • Meanwhile, Josh is feeling the pressure after being benched due to legislative blunders, and the whole thing feels like a powder keg.
    — Matthew Jackson, Vulture, 23 Sep. 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'powder keg.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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