snap judgment

1. A hurried or impetuous decision or finding, as in George was known for making snap judgments on personnel questions; he rarely bothered to investigate further. This expression, which uses snap in the sense of “quick,” was first recorded in 1841.

Example Sentences

She can peg a person’s height at a glance and sum up their prospects in a pitiless snap judgment.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

The snap judgment among legal experts was that a federal judge’s dismissal on Nov. 7 of a copyright infringement lawsuit against OpenAI, the leader in advanced chatbots, will short-circuit an ever-growing effort by artists and writers to keep AI firms from stealing their content.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

The “consular process” takes years and culminates in a brief interview at the consulate by officers with extremely heavy caseloads who must make a snap judgment as to whether the applicant is “admissible” to return to their home in the U.S.

Read more on Slate

His snap judgment endangers a planet's civilian population, leaving her to fix the crisis he has created.

Read more on Salon

The film also accurately shows Oppenheimer instantly responding, “That’s impossible,” promptly withdrawing his snap judgment and, within a week, outlining how the discovery might be used to make a bomb.

Read more on Los Angeles Times