How to Use reflexive in a Sentence

reflexive

adjective

• For many people, the reflexive response to this kind of demand is to say no.
• In “I hurt myself,” the verb “hurt” is reflexive.
• In the sentence “We forced ourselves to finish the assignment,” the word “ourselves” is a reflexive pronoun.
• No reflexive grab for the phone.
  — Maggie Downs, Oc Register, 9 Sep. 2025
• Can we be blamed for flinching or dropping into a reflexive crouch this year?
  — Michael Taylor, ExpressNews.com, 7 July 2020
• To Tracey, that reflexive linkage is telling.
  — Seth Abramovitch, HollywoodReporter, 3 Mar. 2026
• Hoggar feels like a reflexive step back for the collective.
  — David Harris, SPIN, 18 Mar. 2026
• Now, on one level, this kind of reflexive hype isn’t surprising.
  — BostonGlobe.com, 9 July 2021
• The reflexive response is to hide mistakes or point fingers elsewhere.
  — Ron Carucci, Forbes, 4 June 2022
• Spewing out those four life-shattering words can be almost reflexive.
  — Angela Haupt, Time, 25 Mar. 2026
• Just a part of his personality, reflexive as a fist bump or handshake.
  — USA Today, 25 June 2021
• County-level proposals to form a new state are met with reflexive pearl-clutching.
  — Kent Russell, Harper’s Magazine , 25 May 2022
• Rau says the trick is to simply warm up the roof of the mouth, the area that initiated the reflexive response in the first place.
  — Julia Daye, Popular Science, 2 Apr. 2026
• The girl’s reflexive flinching, her strained watchfulness ease.
  — Maureen Corrigan, WSJ, 4 Nov. 2022
• This reflexive inhalation will fill the lowest part of your lungs without adding tension to the torso or the neck.
  — Carol Kinsey Goman, Forbes, 6 June 2022
• But in order to do so, journalists focused on global health need to be mindful and reflexive.
  — Quartz, 7 Dec. 2022
• Other than reflexive partisanship, there's no reason why more shouldn't join this time around.
  — Elie Honig, CNN, 21 Mar. 2022
• Trump wants a peace above all else, and has shown in recent months that pressuring his allies to make concessions is a reflexive move.
  — Nick Paton Walsh, CNN Money, 3 Dec. 2025
• Montgomery County needs school board members who will push back on reflexive school closures not backed by the science.
  — Nicole Asbury, Washington Post, 6 July 2022
• But Clarence Thomas has shown in his time on the Court that reflexive deference to them is unwise.
  — Adam J. MacLeod, National Review, 22 Oct. 2021
• Now that the time for reflexive action in responding to the disaster is over, take a step back and realign your brand to the basics.
  — Rohit Kumar, Forbes, 21 Apr. 2021
• At the very least, this reflexive, friendly gesture has quickly become unwelcome by many.
  — Serenity Gibbons, Forbes, 10 June 2021
• So far, too few politicians on both the right and left are moving away from the reflexive tough-on-crime rhetoric that has proven to be so devastating in the past.
  — Time, 3 Nov. 2022
• The buccal phase is the body’s reflexive response to the actual presence of food in the mouth (which aids in swallowing).
  — Scott Lafee, San Diego Union-Tribune, 19 Sep. 2023
• But despite her deep and almost reflexive love of going to the movies, Walls doesn’t plan on returning anytime soon.
  — Rebecca Rubin, chicagotribune.com, 24 Feb. 2021
• This week’s buying may be reflexive, but the scarcity of toilet paper isn’t all about irrational hoarding.
  — Spencer Jakab, WSJ, 18 Nov. 2020
• His reflexive suspicion of causes left him more dismayed than energized by the nascent conflict.
  — John Swansburg, The Atlantic, 15 June 2026
• At their worst, R-word jokes rely too heavily on these reflexive pops and repetition.
  — Hershal Pandya, Vulture, 22 Aug. 2025
• For this reason, the researchers proposed that the photic sneezes aren’t as reflexive as previously thought.
  — Scott Travers, Forbes.com, 15 May 2026
• The flowers feature reflexive petals that bend backward to form a turban shape and are painted in hues of yellow and orange, covered in small brown spots.
  — BostonGlobe.com, 29 May 2022