devil's triangle

Used of an area, the term is connected to the (capitalized, Atlantic) Devil's Triangle

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devil's triangle (plural devil's triangles)

1. An area that is dangerous and where people or vessels may disappear.
   • 1976, The Pulse: Daily Review of the Turkish Press:

     "I say most emphatically that the Seydisehir, Iskenderun, TARIS events, which smell of intrigue, the executions without trial in Zeytinburnu, Malatya, Mardin, the skilful plots in the youth and labour sectors and in the East are a devil's triangle."

   • 1977, World Literature Today, volume 64, page 155:

     "Perhaps all the guilt lies in this devil's triangle, the Balkans, where they are always out to get you."

   • 1981, The Skeptical Inquirer, volume 6, page 50:

     With this last incident we have exhausted Berlitz's proofs of a "devil's triangle disaster." As superficial as these events may seem individually, taken as a whole the picture is even more astonishing: 75 percent of the incidents did not even occur ...

   • 2000, Michelle Jerott, A Great Catch, Avon Books, →ISBN:

     The passengers still on board were keen to watch as Tessa's crew scrambled for their positions, and she heard jokes about icebergs and devil's triangles, and anxious childish queries answered by soothing adult tones.

   • 2001, Sam George, The Perfect Day: 40 Years of Surfer Magazine, Chronicle Books Llc:

     ... failures and the more mysterious—UFOs, witchcraft, devil's triangles, supernatural and other inexhaustible subjects, such as sleeping (pun intended).

   • 2005, Gert Oostindie, Paradise Overseas: The Dutch Caribbean, page 10:

     ... a remarkable modernity. But the crux of this devil's triangle was slavery, a form of labour which gradually became stigmatized in Western Europe; if not perceived as economically obsolete, it was increasingly deemed morally reprehensible.

   • 2012, Iain Sinclair, Ghost Milk: Recent Adventures Among the Future Ruins of ...:

     Like the underfunded academics, the highway-devouring lecturers, Chinese economic migrants shuttled around a devil's triangle: Manchester's Chinatown restaurants to Liverpool to Morecambe. Always in sealed vans or met at the bus station […]

2. A set of three things considered dangerous.
   • 1982, Asian Perspective, volumes 6-7, page 61:

     The two major oil crises the world suffered during the 1970s, the relatively long economic stagnation in the advanced world, and the devil's triangle of high inflation, deep unemployment, and balance of payments pressure which bedevils most […]

   • 1991, Arts Magazine, volume 66, page 93:

     The most pathetic things were the tiny ones, barely balanced, almost drowning in that devil's triangle of hard kitsch, classic tristesse, and real confession: Solitary Confinement, a small hut on a hill, and For Charlie Parker, a bird looking into the ...

   • 2008, Turgut Topal, “Establishing the Use of Melatonin as an Adjuvant Therapeutic Against Paraquat-Induced Lung Toxicity in Rats”, in Experimental Biology and Medicine, page 1133:

     Activation of this "devil's triangle" may be the core of the pathophysiological process of PQ toxicity (4, 6). Furthermore, PQ itself, ROS and peroxynitrite induce intracellular transcription factors such as nuclear factor (NF)-kB and activator protein- ...

   • 2018, Chuanhai Cao, Sarvadaman Pathak, Kiran Patil, Antioxidant Nutraceuticals: Preventive and Healthcare ..., page 16:

     High levels of NO with excess O₂- and high levels o ONOO^- are referred to as a devil's triangle. Melatonin is currently the only antioxidant that is able to combat all aspects this devil's triangle (Korkmaz et al. 2009).

3. Synonym of devil's threesome