- Trending Now: More Trending:
- embolization oleaginous pansexual symbiote charlatan
- ALL
What's Trending Now
More Trending Words
Examples of impulsive in a Sentence
- I couldn't make out exactly what had happened, though I could guess how it started—the two of them talking, kidding around when Mrs. Ramsey came down to the library basement to file some periodicals, an impulsive kiss in the stacks … —Tobias Wolff, Old School, 2003
- There was an odd nobility, a knight-errant quality, about Alan—in his willingness to suffer for the sake of life itself, in his tendency to view himself under harsher light than he would turn on others, in his impulsive generosity. —Tracy Kidder, Home Town, 1999
- So speaks Maude Bailey, the celibate feminist scholar heroine of A. S. Byatt's fifth novel, as, in an impulsive collusion with a male scholar she scarcely knows, she runs off to Brittany. —Joyce Carol Oates, Vogue, November 1990
She's impulsive and often does things that she later regrets.
He needs to learn to control his impulsive behavior.
She made an impulsive decision to quit her job.
Recent Examples of impulsive from the Web
-
His Maiden and her friends are spiky, conflicted, impulsive, odd.
-
Since the impulsive pulling or picking can be a way of trying to cope with negative emotions, feeling stressed might make a person engage in these actions more often.
-
Still, those ardently hoping for Mr Trump’s ousting, regarding him as irresponsible and impulsive, may not fully have considered the consequences.
-
The [chemicals in the brain] that trigger for hunger are the same ones that trigger for anger and rage and impulsive type behaviours.
-
Mitigating circumstances: Mental illness, paranoid personality disorder, anxiety disorder, severe drug dependency, difficult childhood, toxic parenting, bad report cards, impulsive, mother had chemotherapy, sister was killed.
-
Trump's impulsive demand for tariffs on steel and aluminum imports earlier this year set off a panic in his administration among officials forced to hurriedly implement his wishes.
-
Another individual with a Virgo sun sign may lead with the earth sign's signature analytical disposition but also feel impulsive thanks to a fiery Aries moon.
-
All of this should be of great comfort to anyone fearing an impulsive Mueller or Rosenstein firing.
These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'impulsive.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Origin and Etymology of impulsive
see 2impulse
NEW! Time Traveler
First Known Use: 15th century
in the meaning defined at sense 1
See Words from the same yearimpulsive Synonyms
Synonyms
Near Antonyms
down-to-earth, earthy, hard-boiled, hardheaded, levelheaded, matter-of-fact, practical, pragmatic (also pragmatical), reasonable, sensible, tough-minded;
commonsensical, grounded, logical, no-nonsense, rational, sane, sober, sobersided, sound;
fast, fixed, hard-and-fast, immutable, inflexible, invariable, unalterable, unbending, unchangeable, uncompromising, unrelenting, unyielding;
changeless, constant, established, set, settled, stable, steadfast, steady, unchanging, unvarying;
Related Words
impetuous, mercurial, moody, temperamental, volatile;
crankish, eccentric, flaky, quirky;
arbitrary, erratic, fickle, inconstant, irregular, shaky, willful (or wilful);
impractical, quixotic, quixotical, romantic, unrealistic, utopian, visionary;
Synonym Discussion of impulsive
spontaneous, impulsive, instinctive, automatic, mechanical mean acting or activated without deliberation. spontaneous implies lack of prompting and connotes naturalness.
-
- a spontaneous burst of applause
-
- impulsive acts of violence
-
- blinking is an instinctive reaction
-
- his denial was automatic
-
- a mechanical teaching method
Other Psychology Terms
IMPULSIVE Defined for English Language Learners
Definition of impulsive for English Language Learners
-
: doing things or tending to do things suddenly and without careful thought : acting or tending to act on impulse
-
: done suddenly and without planning : resulting from a sudden impulse
IMPULSIVE Defined for Kids
Definition of impulsive for Students
1
: acting or tending to act suddenly and without careful thought
He's impulsive and does things he regrets.
2
: resulting from a sudden impulse
- an impulsive decision
—
impulsively
adverbMedical Dictionary
medical Definition of impulsive
1
: having the power of or actually driving or impelling
2
: actuated by or prone to act on impulse
- impulsive behavior
3
: acting momentarily
- brief impulsive auditory stimuli
Learn More about impulsive
-
Thesaurus: All synonyms and antonyms for impulsive Spanish Central: Translation of impulsive Nglish: Translation of impulsive for Spanish speakers Britannica English: Translation of impulsive for Arabic speakers
Seen and Heard
What made you want to look up impulsive? Please tell us where you read or heard it (including the quote, if possible).
