ready to fire a gun at the least provocation, regardless of the situation or probable consequences.
a trigger-happy hunter.
heedless and foolhardy in matters of great importance and recklessly advocating action that can result in war.
Some called him a trigger-happy candidate.
eager to point out the mistakes or shortcomings of others; aggressively or wantonly critical.
He's a trigger-happy editor with a nervous blue pencil.
tending to resort to the use of firearms or violence irresponsibly
tending to act rashly or without due consideration
First recorded in 1940–45
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
A victim of government-sanctioned culling, trigger-happy farmers and rising road traffic, by 2002 the Iberian lynx was on the verge of extinction, with just 94 cats left in their natural habitat.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 30, 2026
It is designed to weed out the insecure and trigger-happy, the reckless hotheads with something to prove.
From Slate • Apr. 13, 2026
Don’t get trigger-happy and sell because of headlines.
From Barron's • Nov. 20, 2025
Paranoid or jealous people who want to believe the rest of the world is out to get them tend to be trigger-happy.
From Salon • Apr. 21, 2023
The man in charge saw Gilgamesh on the alarm screens and got trigger-happy.
From The Lost Kafoozalum by Ashwell, Pauline
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.
