long fuse

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Meaning · English

Someone with a long fuse has a lot of patience and takes time to get angry.

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

người có sự kiên nhẫn và mất nhiều thời gian để nổi giận

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: a fuse that burns slowly
Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

He has a long fuse, so it takes a lot to make him angry.

AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)

Sources & notes

Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.

Common questions

What does “long fuse” mean?

Someone with a long fuse has a lot of patience and takes time to get angry. Literally: a fuse that burns slowly

Is “long fuse” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.