TRIGGER-HAPPY Synonyms: 118 Similar and Opposite Words

trigger-happy

adjective

Definition of trigger-happy

as in belligerent

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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 Torched by the Warriors from 3-point range last Sunday, Denver limited the trigger-happy Celtics to a 12-for-43 clip downtown. — Bennett Durando, Denver Post, 26 Feb. 2026 We should be asked how our youth retain the impulse to be free when trigger-happy Israeli soldiers and snipers are ordered to kill unarmed children demanding their human rights. — Literary Hub, 11 Feb. 2026 The fifth pick in the 2025 draft has shown flashes as a scorer and pull-up shooter and has surprised many with his ability to make quick-decision passes, something that wasn’t exactly a feature of his game in his one trigger-happy season at Rutgers. — John Hollinger, New York Times, 3 Feb. 2026 The Iranian government has long maintained a rather trigger-happy approach to censorship, to put it mildly. — David Ehrlich, IndieWire, 28 Jan. 2026 See All Example Sentences for trigger-happy

Recent Examples of Synonyms for trigger-happy

Adjective

However, his team describes Fred as a tyrant, who is uncaring and belligerent and micro-manages everything.

— Mary Crossan, Forbes.com, 31 July 2026
Per the title, Aang is the last surviving airbender after his pacifist brethren were slaughtered by a belligerent, expansionist Fire Nation.

— Alison Herman, Variety, 24 July 2026

Definition of belligerent

Adjective

At least, that’s what the bellicose rhetoric from Tehran suggests.

— Ariel Cohen, Forbes.com, 2 July 2026
At National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, a controversial but popular Russian studies program introduced last fall has nothing to do with the glories of imperial Russia and everything to do with the thinking and motivations of the bellicose power next door.

— Howard LaFranchi, Christian Science Monitor, 27 June 2026

Definition of bellicose

Adjective

In the combative hearing, Paul and other Republicans accused Fauci of lying in earlier testimony about the coronavirus’s origins, something the longtime National Institutes of Health scientist has forcefully denied.

— Lauran Neergaard, Fortune, 29 July 2026
Every stage also awards a €2,000 (or over $2,200) prize to the most combative rider.

— Emily Blackwood, PEOPLE, 26 July 2026

Definition of combative

Adjective

Macron says fires are warlike crisis for France Out-of-control wildfires represent France’s greatest crisis since World War II, President Emmanuel Macron said.

— Mohammed Sergie, semafor.com, 29 July 2026
The poem that precedes it, the Iliad, is a cruel and beautiful work, the ultimate story of war; the Odyssey has its warlike passages, but its central energies seem almost commonplace beside the merciless fury of Achilles.

— David Denby, New Yorker, 21 June 2026

Definition of warlike

Adjective

The fire department said firefighters quickly went into defensive mode because the flames were so aggressive.

— Chelsea Hylton, CBS News, 30 July 2026
Starting the playoffs in the wild-card round reduces the World Series odds that Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer has repeatedly cited as a factor in how aggressive a front office should be at the trade deadline.

— Patrick Mooney, New York Times, 30 July 2026

Definition of aggressive

Adjective

The militant group Hamas has reached an agreement with the Board of Peace – tasked with implementing a long term ceasefire plan in Gaza – to relinquish its weapons, a senior official told CNN on Friday.

— Jeremy Diamond, CNN Money, 31 July 2026
Some Israeli strikes and militant attacks have continued since then.

— Emma Nicholson, CBS News, 31 July 2026

Definition of militant

Adjective

Gradually, though, dubby hand percussion rises up from the deep, and soon a truculent, alien-sounding riff and loping dancehall cadence spin the compass point back toward Batu’s Bristol.

— Philip Sherburne, Pitchfork, 6 July 2026
Darren McCarty, a truculent member of the Red Wings who had multiple fights with Lemieux, posted a broken heart emoji on social media and heard the news from Draper.

— Stephen Whyno, Los Angeles Times, 28 May 2026

Definition of truculent

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triggered

trigger-happy

triggering

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“Trigger-happy.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/trigger-happy. Accessed 4 Aug. 2026.

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Synonyms of trigger-happy

adjective

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