Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun Paper steeped in niter so that it catches fire from a spark and burns slowly, used for firing gunpowder and other explosives.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun Paper steeped in saltpeter, which burns slowly, and is used as a match for firing gunpowder, and the like.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun a strip of paper impregnated with
nitre used as afuse for firinggunpowder ,fireworks etc
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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Look how many people took off like their blue touch-paper had been lit.
Islam? Yes. Gay? Yes. British? No, Oh, OK then. « POLICE INSPECTOR BLOG Inspector Gadget 2009
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"Papa's going to light the blue touch-paper and retire immediately!"
The Sky Writer Geoff Barbanell 2010
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Spring Fever, or to give it its full untranslated name Chun Feng Chen Zui De Ye Wan is a massively intriguing prospect and one that will surely ignite the proverbial cultural touch-paper back in China.
“Beautiful But Deeply Flawed”: Simon spends day three with SPRING FEVER! | Obsessed With Film 2009
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Citigroup strategists lit the touch-paper with a note upgrading the sector to "neutral" from "underweight," arguing that European drug stocks had never been cheaper relative to other defensive plays.
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Quite heedlessly they allowed this touch-paper to lie at the door of their war magazine for any spark to fire.
The War in the Air Herbert George 2006
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Nicholas made no reply until the fire of his pipe was established, while he stood in the water quite as if he were on land, supporting himself by nothing more than a gentle movement of his feet, while the glow of the touch-paper lit his round face and yellow leather skull-cap.
Mary Anerley Richard Doddridge 2004
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His children and I used to sail our toy boats in the river before his house, arming them with toy cannon, touch-paper at all the touch-holes, always hoping but always in vain that they would not twist about in the eddies but fire their cannon at one another.
Collected Works of W. B. Yeats Volume III Autobiographies W.B. Yeats 1965
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His children and I used to sail our toy boats in the river before his house, arming them with toy cannon, touch-paper at all the touch-holes, always hoping but always in vain that they would not twist about in the eddies but fire their cannon at one another.
Collected Works of W. B. Yeats Volume III Autobiographies W.B. Yeats 1965
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His children and I used to sail our toy boats in the river before his house, arming them with toy cannon, touch-paper at all the touch-holes, always hoping but always in vain that they would not twist about in the eddies but fire their cannon at one another.
Collected Works of W. B. Yeats Volume III Autobiographies W.B. Yeats 1965
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His children and I used to sail our toy boats in the river before his house, arming them with toy cannon, touch-paper at all the touch-holes, always hoping but always in vain that they would not twist about in the eddies but fire their cannon at one another.
Collected Works of W. B. Yeats Volume III Autobiographies W.B. Yeats 1965
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