spring-loaded
Americanadjective
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
In the lower right of the steering wheel, the metallic, spring-loaded Manettino selector engages one of five drive modes, including Sport mode and Electronic Stability Control Off.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 18, 2026
"As the thinner sea ice expands and contracts more, it generates more momentum for the sea ice, just like one of those spring-loaded toy cars goes faster the farther back you pull it," explains Tandon.
From Science Daily • Mar. 5, 2024
The story’s romance is appropriately spring-loaded with improbability.
From Washington Post • Mar. 28, 2023
There was a whoosh of air as the spring-loaded gate valve opened.
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 1, 2023
I knew that hidden in the tiled stone surface of the floor were several spring-loaded trapdoors.
From "Ready Player One: A Novel" by Ernest Cline
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
