trigger-happy

adjective

Definition of trigger-happynext
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
  1. belligerent
  2. pugnacious
  3. bellicose
  4. combative
  5. warlike
  6. aggressive
  7. militant
  8. truculent
Adjective
  • The measure would prohibit the government from joining sanctions against any belligerent country except sanctions approved by the United Nations.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 27 Sep. 2026
  • Relatives said Billini had even asked the building’s management to move her to another apartment to get her away from her belligerent neighbor.
    — Leonard Greene, New York Daily News, 23 Sep. 2026
Definition of belligerent
Adjective
  • Hilton cuts a colorful and pugnacious figure on the campaign trail.
    — Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 12 Oct. 2026
  • In 2005, the Cage was opened by Ross (the Boss) Friedman, a founding member of the pugnacious and seminal punk band the Dictators, stalwarts of the early CBGB scene.
    — Amanda Petrusich, New Yorker, 7 Sep. 2026
Definition of pugnacious
Adjective
  • Not that Georgian masculinity, with its macho, bellicose posturing and archaic codes of honor, is portrayed as anything other than fumbling and futile.
    — Jessica Kiang, Variety, 16 Sep. 2026
  • At least, that’s what the bellicose rhetoric from Tehran suggests.
    — Ariel Cohen, Forbes.com, 2 July 2026
Definition of bellicose
Adjective
  • The platform still plays that game, though even there the tone has become somewhat combative, as one creator notes to THR.
    — Alex Weprin, HollywoodReporter, 21 Oct. 2026
  • Addressing this head-on, in the moment, could come across as combative.
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 20 Oct. 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
  • Bam Adebayo wasn’t aggressive enough on the offensive side of the ball, which has been a consistent story line of his nine-year NBA career.
    — Omar Kelly, Miami Herald, 22 Oct. 2026
  • On a network like this, rule-breaking often isn’t aggressive at all.
    — Staff Report, Hartford Courant, 22 Oct. 2026
Definition of aggressive
Adjective
  • Labour lawmaker Jo Cox was shot and stabbed in 2016 by a far-right extremist, while Conservative David Amess was stabbed in 2021 by an attacker inspired by the militant Islamic State group.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 20 Oct. 2026
  • Labor lawmaker Jo Cox was shot and stabbed in 2016 by a far-right extremist, while Conservative David Amess was stabbed in 2021 by an attacker inspired by the militant Islamic State group.
    — Rod McGuirk, Los Angeles Times, 20 Oct. 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

Browse Nearby Words

triggered
trigger-happy
triggering
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Cite this Entry

“Trigger-happy.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/trigger-happy. Accessed 24 Oct. 2026.

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