time bomb

See also: timebomb and time-bomb

English

Alternative forms

• timebomb, time-bomb

Etymology

Compound of time +‎ bomb.

Noun

time bomb (plural time bombs)

1. A bomb that has a mechanism such that detonation can be preset to a particular time.
2. (computing) A malicious program designed to perform a destructive action at a certain date or time.
   • 1994, Peter G. Neumann, Computer-Related Risks‎^[1], Addison-Wesley Professional, →ISBN:

     Donald Gene Burleson was prosecuted on felony charges for planting a time bomb that, shortly after he was fired, deleted more than 168,000 brokerage records of USPA & IRA in Fort Worth, Texas.

3. (figuratively) A situation that threatens to have disastrous consequences at some future time.

   Synonyms: ticking bomb, ticking time bomb

   • 2014 June 6, Françoise Fressoz, “France’s Ticking Time Bomb”, in The New York Times‎^[2], →ISSN:

     Even so, they managed to morph the recent European parliamentary elections into a time bomb and plant it under their country’s own future.

   • 2023 May 31, Nigel Harris, “Comment: GBR now! We have no Plan B”, in RAIL, number 984, page 3:

     Someone must explain to Sunak about the time bomb ticking beneath his £1,000 loafers.

   • 2023 June 30, Marina Hyde, “The tide is coming in fast on Rishi Sunak – and it’s full of sewage”, in The Guardian‎^[3]:

     The pandemic preparation timebomb detonated to devastating effect; a number of other timebombs are on the shortest of fuses. The government has now reached a state of perfect vicious cycle, when the only thing worse than the things it does are all the things it didn’t get round to doing.

Derived terms

• Vietnamese time bomb

 

Translations

bomb with a timeout mechanism

• Afrikaans: tydbom
• Arabic: قُنْبُلَةٌ مَوْقُوتَةٌ f (qunbulatun mawqūtatun)
• Catalan: bomba de rellotgeria f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 定時炸彈／定时炸弹 (zh) (dìngshízhàdàn), 計時炸彈／计时炸弹 (jìshízhàdàn)

• Czech: časovaná bomba f
• Dutch: tijdbom (nl) f or m
• Finnish: aikapommi (fi)
• French: bombe à retardement (fr) f
• Galician: bomba de reloxería f
• German: Zeitbombe (de) f
• Greek: ωρολογιακή βόμβα (el) f (orologiakí vómva)
• Hungarian: időzített bomba
• Indonesian: bom waktu (id)
• Irish: buama ama m
• Italian: bomba a orologeria f, bomba a tempo f
• Japanese: 時限爆弾 (ja) (じげんばくだん, jigenbákudan)
• Korean: 시한폭탄(時限爆彈) (ko) (sihanpoktan)
• Malay: bom jangka
• Persian: بمب ساعتی (fa) (bomb-e sâ'ati)
• Polish: bomba zegarowa f
• Portuguese: bomba-relógio f
• Russian: бо́мба заме́дленного де́йствия (ru) f (bómba zamédlennovo déjstvija), бо́мба с часовы́м механи́змом f (bómba s časovým mexanízmom)
• Spanish: bomba de relojería f
• Swedish: tidsinställd bomb (sv) c
• Thai: ระเบิดเวลา
• Turkish: saatli bomba (tr)
• Ukrainian: бомба вповільненої дії (bomba vpovilʹnenoji diji)
• Welsh: bom amser m or f

computing: program designed to perform a destructive action at a certain date and/or time

• Finnish: aikapommi (fi)

situation that threatens to have disastrous consequences at some future time

• Dutch: tijdbom (nl) f
• Finnish: aikapommi (fi)
• French: bombe à retardement (fr) f
• Galician: bomba de reloxería f
• Hungarian: időzített bomba
• Italian: bomba a orologeria f, bomba a tempo f
• Polish: bomba zegarowa f
• Spanish: bomba de relojería f
• Swedish: tidsinställd bomb (sv) c
• Ukrainian: бомба вповільненої дії f (bomba vpovilʹnenoji diji)

See also

• accident waiting to happen