Search Result for "time bomb":
Wordnet 3.0

NOUN (2)

1. a problematic situation that will eventually become dangerous if not addressed;
- Example: "India is a demographic time bomb"
- Example: "the refugee camp is a ticking bomb waiting to go off"
[syn: time bomb, ticking bomb]

2. a bomb that has a detonating mechanism that can be set to go off at a particular time;
[syn: time bomb, infernal machine]


WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

time bomb n 1: a problematic situation that will eventually become dangerous if not addressed; "India is a demographic time bomb"; "the refugee camp is a ticking bomb waiting to go off" [syn: time bomb, ticking bomb] 2: a bomb that has a detonating mechanism that can be set to go off at a particular time [syn: time bomb, infernal machine]
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

18 Moby Thesaurus words for "time bomb": aerial bomb, antipersonnel bomb, bomb, bombshell, carcass, concussion grenade, depth bomb, depth charge, fire bomb, gas grenade, grenade, hand grenade, incendiary bomb, incendiary grenade, infernal machine, petard, tear-gas grenade, wall grenade
The Jargon File (version 4.4.7, 29 Dec 2003):

time bomb n. A subspecies of logic bomb that is triggered by reaching some preset time, either once or periodically. There are numerous legends about time bombs set up by programmers in their employers' machines, to go off if the programmer is fired or laid off and is not present to perform the appropriate suppressing action periodically. Interestingly, the only such incident for which we have been pointed to documentary evidence took place in the Soviet Union in 1986! A disgruntled programmer at the Volga Automobile Plant (where the Fiat clones called Ladas were manufactured) planted a time bomb which, a week after he'd left on vacation, stopped the entire main assembly line for a day. The case attracted lots of attention in the Soviet Union because it was the first cracking case to make it to court there. The perpetrator got a suspended sentence of 3 years in jail and was barred from future work as a programmer.
The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (30 December 2018):

time bomb A subspecies of logic bomb that is triggered by reaching some preset time, either once or periodically. There are numerous legends about time bombs set up by programmers in their employers' machines, to go off if the programmer is fired or laid off and is not present to perform the appropriate suppressing action periodically. Interestingly, the only such incident for which we have been pointed to documentary evidence took place in the Soviet Union in 1986! A disgruntled programmer at the Volga Automobile Plant (where the Fiat clones called Ladas were manufactured) planted a time bomb which, a week after he'd left on vacation, stopped the entire main assembly line for a day. The case attracted lots of attention in the Soviet Union because it was the first cracking case to make it to court there. The perpetrator got 3 years in jail. [Jargon File] (2001-09-15)