as in hot button
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Recent Examples of third rail
The bottom line: Republican lawmakers have generally considered ESAs to be a third rail and are extremely resistant to Democratic proposals to eliminate or curtail the 2022 expansion of the program.
—
Jeremy Duda, Axios, 21 Jan. 2025
There is another third rail in this equation: Xinjiang.
—Wesley Alexander Hill, Forbes, 7 Jan. 2025
Then there is the third rail of Trump World: Mr. Putin.
—Michael Crowley, New York Times, 15 Jan. 2025
If our job as marketers is to invite as many people as possible, sometimes that feels like a third rail not to touch.
—Rebecca Rubin, Variety, 25 Nov. 2024
See all Example Sentences for third rail 
Jeremy Duda, Axios, 21 Jan. 2025
There is another third rail in this equation: Xinjiang.
—Wesley Alexander Hill, Forbes, 7 Jan. 2025
Then there is the third rail of Trump World: Mr. Putin.
—Michael Crowley, New York Times, 15 Jan. 2025
If our job as marketers is to invite as many people as possible, sometimes that feels like a third rail not to touch.
—Rebecca Rubin, Variety, 25 Nov. 2024
See all Example Sentences for third rail
Recent Examples of Synonyms for third rail
Noun
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With Republicans currently controlling both houses of Congress by thin margins, significant legislative could certainly follow, but could still prove difficult on some hot button issues.—
Gordon G. Chang,
Newsweek,
24 Jan. 2025
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Why Disney’s Bob Iger is trying to avoid hot buttons Walt Disney Co. and Chief Executive Bob Iger have made a sharp pivot since doubling-down on diversity and inclusion efforts in the wake of George Floyd’s murder in Minneapolis 4½ years ago.—
Ryan Fonseca,
Los Angeles Times,
24 Dec. 2024
Noun
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But as family trauma in Syria is expressed in long lists of names and multiple dimensions of torture and suffering, without justice, such diversity could be a ticking time bomb in a society fractured along many lines.—
Scott Peterson,
The Christian Science Monitor,
31 Jan. 2025
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This is on top of the major cyber espionage against nine telecom companies, against hacking of U.S. infrastructure that incoming National Security Adviser Mike Waltz said was planting cyber time bombs in U.S. infrastructure.—
CBS News,
CBS News,
5 Jan. 2025
Noun
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Wes accurately identifies that as the powder keg that made Rob turn on his fellow Traitor.—
Tom Smyth,
Vulture,
30 Jan. 2025
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Mobilizing more military hardware, stationing U.S. forces closer to opponents, and spurring weapons proliferation among allies only makes the region more of a powder keg.—
Van Jackson,
Foreign Affairs,
22 Oct. 2021
Noun
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The move comes after Republican officials ramped up efforts to turn the 2021 order into a partisan flash point ahead of the 2024 election.—
Hansi Lo Wang,
NPR,
20 Jan. 2025
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The plight of the Palestinians will serve as a flash point, a symbol of inequities in the prevailing international order and, in the eyes of many across the developing world, the unfinished work of decolonization.—
Matias Spektor,
Foreign Affairs,
7 Jan. 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Third rail.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/third%20rail. Accessed 16 Feb. 2025.
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