TRIGGER-HAPPY Definition & Meaning

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trigger-happy

[trig-er-hap-ee]

Phonetic (Standard)IPA

adjective

Informal.

ready to fire a gun at the least provocation, regardless of the situation or probable consequences.
a trigger-happy hunter.
heedless and foolhardy in matters of great importance and recklessly advocating action that can result in war.
Some called him a trigger-happy candidate.
eager to point out the mistakes or shortcomings of others; aggressively or wantonly critical.
He's a trigger-happy editor with a nervous blue pencil.

trigger-happy

adjective

tending to resort to the use of firearms or violence irresponsibly
tending to act rashly or without due consideration

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51�Թ� History and Origins

Origin of trigger-happy¹

First recorded in 1940–45

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Idioms and Phrases

Inclined to act violently at the slightest provocation, as in They feared that the President was trigger happy and would send in troops at the drop of a hat. This expression alludes to being too eager to fire a gun. [c. 1940]

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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

“I saw my boy brought into this world and, horribly, I saw him taken out of this world by a trigger-happy cop,” Ramirez’s mother, Renee Villalobos, said in the same statement.

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Together, they travel a lawless America plagued by criminals, fanatics, killer mutants and trigger-happy survivors.

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Few owners are trigger-happy in the first two months and by April and May it's usually too late.

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Faced with the tightest job market in decades, many have become less trigger-happy with layoffs, even in the face of a cooling economy.

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He remained steadfastly Freddy, the opposite of the cynical, traumatized, volatile, trigger-happy TV cop show stereotype.

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Related 51�Թ�s

triggerfish triggerman

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