third rail
Speech parts
1. third rail - Noun
2. third rail - Phrase
Meaning
The electrified rail that runs beside or between train tracks to power electric trains.
(by extension) Anything that is dangerous to come into contact with, or is best avoided.
Source: en.wiktionary.orgSynonyms
Hypernyms
Related terms
Examples
I gave him a kick and he stepped back onto the third rail. Exploding, flaming eraser! This is why moms tell you to stay away from the third rail, but it sure came in handy this time.
I hit the third rail. You cannot criticize Israel in this country and survive.
Barbecue is the third rail of North Carolina politics.
It's a matter of invitations versus context. Twitter is really good at providing context, like, I'm having coffee at Third Rail Coffee.' Foursquare is about invitations to places. In this respect Foursquare has started to replace Yelp for me.
I am going to give the American people a huge helping of unbridled truth: that we can't continue to spend what we are spending, that we can't avoid entitlement reform because we are afraid of third rail politics.
It means the third rail has seven hundred volts of direct current running through it. Touch it and you're human popcorn.