waiting to happen

English[edit]

Modeled after accident waiting to happen and disaster waiting to happen; more generic uses outside of those phrases apparently started decades later, c. 1960s.

(colloquial) Bound to happen; almost certain to occur in the future.
an accident waiting to happen, a divorce waiting to happen
- 2023 September 30, Alexis Petridis, “U2 review – an utterly astonishing, admirably raw Vegas extravaganza”, in The Guardian‎^[1], London:
  On the most prosaic level, there’s the section in the show when what appears to be a giant rope made of knotted sheets ascends to the roof and transforms itself into a swing. Bono selects a fan from the front row in an echo of U2’s fabled Live Aid performance, seats them in the swing and pushes them out over the audience: with the best will in the world, this seems less like stagecraft than an injury lawsuit waiting to happen.