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