trigger-happy

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of trigger-happy An ascendant China, a trigger-happy Russia and rollercoaster politics in the U.S., among other factors, are prompting conversations of the deadliest stakes. Colin Demarest, Axios, 19 Mar. 2025 When Orsolya knocks on the man’s door with an army of trigger-happy policemen at her back, the bailiff — in her infinite mercy — agrees to give the guy some time to collect his belongings. David Ehrlich, IndieWire, 19 Feb. 2025 Rifle Club is a trigger-happy world where violence is almost poetically portrayed. Sweta Kaushal, Forbes, 23 Jan. 2025 The trigger-happy tradition to shoot guns in the air at midnight on New Years Eve has gone on for decades. Natalie Davies, Detroit Free Press, 27 Dec. 2024 See All Example Sentences for trigger-happy
Recent Examples of Synonyms for trigger-happy
Adjective
  • Everyone seemed white, and every man other than the fathers and the very old seemed belligerent.
    Michael Thomas, New Yorker, 19 July 2025
  • Another man told the belligerent passenger not to speak disrespectfully to women.
    Thomas Westerholm, MSNBC Newsweek, 17 July 2025
Adjective
  • Keefe was an Irish Republican from Boston, the son of a meat cutter, who made his name in New Haven as a pugnacious defender of the oppressed from their oppressors.
    Edmund H. Mahony, Hartford Courant, 11 July 2025
  • Netanyahu’s pugnacious rhetoric, his growing reliance on the war and on his hard-right allies for his political survival, and the IDF’s conduct on the ground all suggest a preference for fighting on.
    Max Rodenbeck, Foreign Affairs, 25 June 2025
Adjective
  • In 2017, the President returned from an impressively bellicose Bastille Day celebration in France determined to host his own version of a military parade.
    Susan B. Glasser, New Yorker, 12 June 2025
  • The bellicose saga between Iran and the United States goes back seven decades and 13 presidents, a relationship that broke down after the people of Iran rose up against a regime the United States helped install 1953.
    Erin Mansfield, USA Today, 26 June 2025
Adjective
  • Israel and Greece would also try to stymie a pan-Turkic outflow of funds and power thrusting a combative Erdogan into their zones of influence.
    Melik Kaylan, Forbes.com, 10 July 2025
  • Although many will agree with Nandy’s position, her combative stance has raised eyebrows among fellow lawmakers, BBC insiders, and industry observers.
    Jake Kanter, Deadline, 9 July 2025
Adjective
  • His warlike actions in Iran, despite campaign promises to the contrary, blatantly bypassed the need to gain approval from the legislative branch of government.
    Reader Commentary, Baltimore Sun, 29 June 2025
  • The bottom line: Bipartisanship is the most obvious casualty of Schumer's new warlike posture toward the GOP.
    Hans Nichols, Axios, 21 Mar. 2025
Adjective
  • Chantel’s aggressive, no-nonsense delivery clashed with Jackie’s passive-deflective tone, turning what could’ve been a breakthrough into yet another blow-up.
    Amber Corrine, VIBE.com, 22 July 2025
  • The older Biden was diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer, characterized by a Gleason score of 9, or Grade Group 5, with metastasis to the bone.
    Hailey Bullis, The Washington Examiner, 22 July 2025
Adjective
  • Settler violence in the West Bank has risen since the start of Israel's war against Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza in late 2023, according to rights groups.
    Ali Sawafta, USA Today, 13 July 2025
  • Buhari vowed to do more to fight militant groups and fix the economy as the demonstrations turned deadly and continued to simmer for the remainder of his presidency.
    Mitchell McCluskey, CNN Money, 13 July 2025
Adjective
  • Ever since the truculent meeting between Trump, Vance, and the Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky, in February, infantilized or bloated distortions of Vance’s face have been a popular meme, defining the digital brand of the Administration, at least for its opponents.
    Kyle Chayka, New Yorker, 2 July 2025
  • Not the first imaginative, truculent Irishman to play the game, nor the last, McCracken’s militancy and principles put him at odds with the Irish Football Association.
    Michael Cox, New York Times, 12 June 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Trigger-happy.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/trigger-happy. Accessed 26 Jul. 2025.

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