safety-valve

present singular third person safety-valves · participle present safety-valving · participle past safety-valved · past safety-valved · alternative safety valve

1. Sometimes followed by off:
   1. transitiveTo use a relief valve on (a container holding a gas or vapour) to relieve excessive pressure which has built up inside.
   2. transitiveTo install a relief valve on (such a container) for that purpose.
   3. figurativelytransitiveTo use some mechanism to relieve (physical or emotional pressure or tension).

plural safety-valves

1. alternativetransitiveAlternative form of safety valve.

   1 more example

   […] I have often thought that it was a great error in our legislature when they consented to put down the public lotteries in England. I am convinced that they were beneficial, acting as safety-valves to the gambling spirit of the nation, and that their prohibition has been productive of much crime and misery.

   1840, F[rederick] M[arryat], “Diary on the Continent. Chapter XIX.”, in Olla Podrida. […], volume I, London: Longman, Orme, Brown, Green, & Longmans, […], →OCLC, pages 205–206