How to Use time bomb in a Sentence

time bomb

noun
  • He's a time bomb getting ready to explode.
  • If we don't do something about the pollution problem, we'll be sitting on a ticking time bomb.
  • Of course, their amity turned out to be a time bomb.
    — Gary Baum, HollywoodReporter, 8 Apr. 2026
  • This was more of a ticking time bomb than a fast-acting burn.
    — Michael Casagrande | [email protected], al, 12 Jan. 2020
  • Kemmler feels this is a ticking time bomb.
    — Chris Hoffman, CBS News, 6 Mar. 2026
  • The brain is like a ticking time bomb whose clock starts at the moment of death.
    — Emily Toomey, Smithsonian, 21 Aug. 2019
  • The 19-year-old was a ticking time bomb ready to go off at any time.
    — Atlanta Life, ajc, 16 Feb. 2018
  • Or maybe the knee is a time bomb that did not need this series extended to at least six games.
    — Dan Wolken, USA TODAY, 15 June 2021
  • But there is an enormous cloud over everything, which is a ticking time bomb.
    — Bridget Read, Vogue, 9 July 2019
  • There's a ticking time bomb hanging over Nathan Brown's head.
    — Samantha Highfill, EW.com, 14 Sep. 2023
  • But now, the concern is that 2021 may be a ticking time bomb.
    — Bruce Y. Lee, Forbes, 17 June 2021
  • Can people avoid the ticking HSA tax time bomb?
    — Medora Lee, USA Today, 20 May 2026
  • And every so often, the virus plants a ticking time bomb in the nervous system.
    — ABC News, 12 Mar. 2026
  • So that's going to be a bit of a ticking time bomb, going into the future episodes.
    — Dalton Ross, EW.com, 5 Oct. 2020
  • The extra monetary base is dry tinder or a ticking time bomb, choose your own metaphor.
    — Bill Conerly, Forbes, 25 Feb. 2021
  • For much of the film, that enticing idea undergirds the main plot line like a ticking time bomb.
    — Gregory Nussen, Deadline, 3 Sep. 2025
  • Missing one factor can lead to substantial issues; that is why this state is called a time bomb.
    — Csaba Toth, Forbes, 29 Oct. 2021
  • If anything, the nuke adds a sense of urgency, a ticking time bomb for the next season.
    — Dani Di Placido, Forbes.com, 30 Dec. 2025
  • But to me, menstruation felt more like a time bomb, a fuse that my body re-lit every single month.
    — Therese Shechter, SELF, 13 Mar. 2019
  • The Arctic permafrost, frozen soil that is chock full of carbon, is a ticking time bomb.
    — Paul Voosen, Science | AAAS, 21 Oct. 2019
  • From that moment on, the structure was basically a time bomb.
    — Jeremy Kahn, Fortune, 19 Nov. 2023
  • The Democrats had a chance to disarm this ticking time bomb during the lame-duck session but chose not to.
    — Jason Linkins, The New Republic, 14 Jan. 2023
  • The ticking time bomb on the ship where much of the action transpires is a nuclear warhead.
    — Mark Jenkins, Washington Post, 21 Sep. 2023
  • The insurance and housing sectors are scrambling to try to get ahead of this ticking time bomb.
    — Emma Burleigh, Fortune, 3 Sep. 2025
  • For one, Burdi and Kahnle are ticking time bombs on the injury front.
    — Gary Phillips, New York Daily News, 1 July 2024
  • Amid all the Niners’ terrible special teams play, this is a ticking time bomb.
    — Dieter Kurtenbach, The Mercury News, 29 Sep. 2024
  • The time bomb is ticking—and consumers should begin bracing for the explosion.
    — Nicholas Creel, MSNBC Newsweek, 24 June 2025
  • At the same time, the discovery of a corpse on his property becomes a ticking time bomb that can send him back to prison.
    — Dana Feldman, Forbes, 27 Apr. 2021
  • But the city and state have still not announced a long-term solution for the housing time bomb that concerned Vasquez.
    — Mick Dumke, ProPublica, 21 Apr. 2020
  • Meanwhile, this pension time bomb would cost the city nearly as much as repeal of the grocery tax and in the future will cost far more.
    — The Editorial Board, Chicago Tribune, 29 July 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'time bomb.' 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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