How to Use hair trigger in a Sentence

hair trigger

noun

• His letters to the editor, fired on a hair trigger, left a trail of gun smoke.
  — Los Angeles Times, 12 July 2021
• Long-term stress can mean our fight-or-flight response does its thing on a hair trigger.
  — Eleanor Morgan, refinery29.com, 12 Nov. 2021
• The demon core, destined for use in a weapon of mass destruction, was designed to have a hair trigger.
  — Julian G. West, The Atlantic, 2 Apr. 2018
• Tested by predators of every stripe, its nerves are cocked against a hair trigger.
  — Tom Davis, Field & Stream, 10 Jan. 2023
• Those who did not lose their homes live on a hair trigger, choked for weeks by thick smoke and always girded for a quick escape.
  — Thomas Fuller, New York Times, 18 Sep. 2020
• With every hair trigger, the flytrap produces more enzymes, keeping count to keep up with the size of its prey.
  — Kiona N. Smith, Discover Magazine, 31 May 2016
• All these moves would make the world safer and might also dissuade China, which does not have its missiles on a hair trigger, from adopting that policy.
  — The Editors, Scientific American, 1 Mar. 2017
• One result: nuclear weapons might be put on a hair trigger in crises to minimize the danger of preemption.
  — Loren Thompson, Forbes, 2 Jan. 2023
• Since Lynx, my 4-year-old daughter, dragged a bundle of harnesses into the yard, our sled dogs — which have a hair trigger that goes off at the first sight of any mushing gear — had been in a literal frenzy.
  — Joseph Robertia, Anchorage Daily News, 1 Feb. 2018
• The controller is notable for mechanical buttons that respond on a hair trigger.
  — Popular Science, 9 June 2020
• The accelerator's hair trigger delivered more responsiveness for quicker pep off the line, and the ride felt much firmer — even choppy at times.
  — Jennifer Geiger, USA TODAY, 23 Feb. 2018
• So far there’s been no launch, but the strange shooting death this weekend of a South Korean official who might have been looking to enter the North by boat nonetheless highlights the hair trigger on which the Peninsula still rests.
  — John Bolton, WSJ, 29 Sep. 2020
• But try telling that to Washington politicians who are on hair trigger alert for any development that might define the early months of a new administration.
  — Stephen Collinson, CNN, 10 May 2021
• He is charged with illuminating the line between right and wrong at a time when war seems but a hair trigger from peace, when the ways to kill grow ever more sophisticated, when the consequences stream round the world instantaneously.
  — Mary Beth McCauley, The Christian Science Monitor, 23 May 2022
• The quick escalation and number of people involved in the destruction showed Minneapolis remains on a hair trigger three months after the police killing of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man.
  — John Ewoldt, Star Tribune, 27 Aug. 2020
• The loosening of limits has occurred as violent political rhetoric rises and police in some places fear bloodshed among an armed populace on a hair trigger.
  — Mike McIntire, BostonGlobe.com, 26 Nov. 2022
• Many experts have urged Biden to reform the launch system, perhaps requiring two or more people to authorize nuclear weapons use, or taking the whole system off a hair trigger altogether.
  — Kyle Mizokami, Popular Mechanics, 20 Jan. 2021

Last Updated: 4 Nov 2024