How to Use tinderbox in a Sentence

tinderbox

noun
  • That old house is really a tinderbox.
  • The whole place is a tinderbox.
    — Rowan Jacobsen, Harpers Magazine, 24 Oct. 2025
  • In the past few years the sparks of jihad have been struck in this tinderbox.
    — The Economist, 12 July 2018
  • The extreme heat and drought have turned much of the West into a tinderbox.
    — Scott Wilson, Washington Post, 19 June 2021
  • People who had been inside called it a deathtrap and a tinderbox.
    — The Mercury News, The Denver Post, 5 June 2017
  • Brown said the state as a whole is a tinderbox with the most extreme fire conditions in three decades.
    — oregonlive, 10 Sep. 2020
  • This land has become a tinderbox after decades of drought and climate change.
    — Erik Kain, Forbes, 21 Feb. 2023
  • But no one is going to come out of this romantic tinderbox unscathed.
    — Charles McNulty, Los Angeles Times, 24 Oct. 2023
  • Extreme drought has turned the region into a tinderbox and allowed flames to spread.
    — Sarah Lynch Baldwin, CBS News, 25 Apr. 2026
  • That left much of the state a tinderbox when hundreds of lightning strikes scorched the countryside last week.
    — Paul Douglas, Star Tribune, 27 Aug. 2020
  • Winds gusting through a vast tinderbox of undergrowth made the fire balloon in size and merge with a smaller blaze.
    — New York Times, 22 July 2021
  • Texas has become a tinderbox because of weeks of extreme heat, with little relief in sight.
    — Diana Leonard, Anchorage Daily News, 14 Aug. 2023
  • And when somebody’s kid comes home saying slavery set off that tinderbox, there’s going to be a meeting.
    — al, 16 June 2021
  • But this year, drought worsened by climate change turned the wetlands into a tinderbox and the fires raged out of control.
    — Scott Reinhard, New York Times, 13 Oct. 2020
  • Hawaii had long been a tinderbox of colonial tensions; Maunakea simply lit the flame.
    — Trisha Kehaulani Watson-Sproat, Vox, 24 July 2019
  • Locals have watched the forest of their youth transform into an overgrown tinderbox.
    — Mark Olalde, USA TODAY, 16 Sep. 2020
  • The red card turned St James’ Park into a frenzied tinderbox.
    — Jacob Tanswell, New York Times, 22 Jan. 2026
  • The new fighting is afflicting a state that was already a tinderbox of racial violence.
    — Jon Emont, WSJ, 4 Jan. 2019
  • In the Texas Panhandle, the ground is akin to a tinderbox, with months having passed since the last drop of rain fell.
    — Pedram Javaheri and Derek Van Dam, CNN, 15 Dec. 2021
  • The region right now is a tinderbox, as the different sides try to leverage alliances and show off military prowess.
    — Natasha Bertrand, CNN, 15 Oct. 2021
  • But ignoring the tinderbox that is our state and our planet invites more madness, not just for the Cassandras but for us all.
    — Elizabeth Weil, ProPublica, 28 Aug. 2020
  • Millions of Californians already live in tinderbox canyons and at the edges of shrub fields and overgrown forests.
    — Calmatters, Mercury News, 30 Apr. 2025
  • And a two-state solution has been viewed globally as a long-term answer to douse the tinderbox that is the Middle East.
    — John Bacon, USA TODAY, 30 Jan. 2024
  • Even then, there is a difference between living in the Bay Area and living in the tinderbox that the wine country has become.
    — Dave Eggers, The New Yorker, 11 Oct. 2020
  • The Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif has long been regarded as a tinderbox, and with good reason.
    — Yasmeen Serhan, Time, 4 Jan. 2023
  • The schools mess alone has baked in Democratic losses, notably in states such as New Jersey, a tinderbox of rage over closed schools.
    — Daniel Henninger, WSJ, 27 Apr. 2022
  • The Pacific Palisades was a tinderbox waiting to happen, the experts said.
    — Julia Jacobo, ABC News, 10 Jan. 2025
  • Until the end of the Hamas-Israel conflict, diplomats and observers of many stripes will continue to watch the tinderbox here very closely.
    — Tamara Qiblawi, CNN, 12 Oct. 2023
  • The two deaths of leaders from Iran's key proxies – one on Iranian soil – threatens to ignite the tinderbox of tensions between the long-time foes.
    — Harriet Marsden, The Week Uk, theweek, 31 July 2024
  • Wildfires spread across Spain, France and other parts of Europe as torrid heat mixed with months of little rain to make the continent a tinderbox.
    — Eric Sylvers, WSJ, 17 July 2022

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