A person, thing, or situation that appears to be imminently dangerous or troublesome. Often but not always used somewhat humorously. Don't leave that ladder in the middle of the yard, it's just an accident waiting to happen!My toddler is starting to walk now, and she is just an accident waiting to happen.Did you really just bring three rambunctious boys into an antique store with you? That's just an accident waiting to happen!
1. If you describe a situation or activity as an accident waiting to happen, you mean that they are likely to be a cause of danger in the future. A lot of the city's buildings are accidents waiting to happen.The sudden explosion of a real bullet on stage during the play was an accident waiting to happen.
2. If you describe a person as an accident waiting to happen, you mean that they are likely to cause trouble or have bad problems. He was getting a reputation for being wild — an accident waiting to happen.
1 a potentially disastrous situation, usually caused by negligent or faulty procedures. 2 a person certain to cause trouble.
11997Times Accidents are often said to be ‘waiting to happen’. It does not take much imagination to see that the chaotic start to the Whitbread round-the-world race…could easily have ended in tragedy.
a thing or person that is very likely to cause danger or a problem in the future because of the condition it is in or the way they behave: For many months local residents had been complaining that the building was unsafe, and that it was an accident waiting to happen.
A recipe for disaster. The phrase is used for such diverse circumstances as a large pothole causing an auto accident, an airplane flight on a collision course, or a small leak that ends in a billion-dollar oil spill like that in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. It appears in the lyrics of several popular songs, such as the one quoted above.
But a trio of Conservatives voiced their concern that local roads would not be able to cope with heavy goods vehicles and that one particular junction was "an accident waiting to happen".
Sending him to a young offender institution, Judge Wendy Joseph QC said: "You were an accident waiting to happen. The victim could have been any pedestrian.
As this effectively blinds motorists as they approach one of the two pedestrian crossings across this busy road, surely it's an accident waiting to happen, and one that our planning department should have seen coming?
The ones at Greystone are an accident waiting to happen. I'm sure I'm not the only driver who's been waiting to be hit when stuck half way around a roundabout because of traffic tights.
After critics, including the city MP, branded part of the layout around Durham Market Place as "an accident waiting to happen" the county council announced yesterday it is to carry out further improvements.
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