How to Use knee-jerk in a Sentence

knee-jerk

1 of 2 adjective

• Sorry to be a knee-jerk ACAB leftist, but this whole police-brutality side plot isn’t really doing it for me.
  — Emma Specter, Vogue, 28 June 2024
• China’s incentive approach is a stark contrast from its knee-jerk reaction following the announcement of the EU tariffs last week.
  — Prarthana Prakash, Fortune, 24 June 2024
• But what about the show’s own knee-jerk hatred of the public?
  — Helen Shaw, The New Yorker, 26 June 2023
• Ed could tell that Joe knew his knee-jerk reaction to check his phone was the wrong thing to do.
  — Phil Blair, San Diego Union-Tribune, 14 May 2023
• One of the hazards of a certain age is the knee-jerk tendency to reminisce on the good ol’ days.
  — Kevin Sherrington, Dallas News, 17 Mar. 2023
• But that does not indicate knee-jerk reactions on the part of Tunisians.
  — Michael Robbins, Foreign Affairs, 14 Dec. 2023
• The knee-jerk response would be to say that nothing has really changed.
  — Fidel Martinez, Los Angeles Times, 25 May 2023
• Since Aries tends to be impatient, an Aries Moon may be prone to knee-jerk reactions.
  — Women's Health, 12 May 2023
• My knee-jerk reaction was to be a curmudgeon and say all of them except high school.
  — Sherry Kuehl, Kansas City Star, 22 May 2024
• In his view, the ban is the culmination of nearly two years of him and his team scrutinizing the app, not some knee-jerk move.
  — Sapna Maheshwari, New York Times, 2 Sep. 2023
• That makes sense from an emotional, knee-jerk standpoint.
  — Mark Zeigler, San Diego Union-Tribune, 31 July 2023
• What happened in the past may no longer apply to what will happen in the future, and you’re still left making knee-jerk decisions and hoping for the best.
  — Rhett Power, Forbes, 18 Feb. 2024
• Students came for zombies but stayed for the chance to learn more about themselves and their knee-jerk reactions to catastrophe, Stutzky said.
  — Scottie Andrew, CNN, 13 Mar. 2023
• So when the pandemic hit, my knee-jerk reaction was to just immerse myself in music and work.
  — William E. Ketchum Iii, Billboard, 5 Apr. 2023
• As knee-jerk reactions to AI faded over the course of the year, new theories cropped up about AI’s trajectory.
  — Chloe Berger, Fortune, 25 Mar. 2024
• None of its leaders have been willing to condemn the Squad and its bigoted allies who are knee-jerk anti-Israel zealots.
  — Andrew Stein, New York Daily News, 19 May 2024
• None of that might stem the knee-jerk opposition to the four-day week among businesses and their water carriers on Capitol Hill.
  — Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times, 21 Mar. 2024
• Such a knee-jerk response reflects deep ignorance of the art and conflict that Little Richard epitomized.
  — Armond White, National Review, 21 Apr. 2023
• There would be no crying about civilian deaths in the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, no knee-jerk second-guessing of the Bush administration.
  — Jim Rutenberg, New York Times, 6 Apr. 2023
• This is often a knee-jerk and unfair assumption as to the manager, who must be loyal to the association, not who runs it at any point in time.
  — Kelly G. Richardson, San Diego Union-Tribune, 4 May 2024
• But there’s a bit more nuance to what looks like a knee-jerk response to the financial rocket fuel of low interest rates, analysts say.
  — Paul Davidson, USA TODAY, 24 Mar. 2024
• My knee-jerk reaction was to call them sellouts, or deluded, as many progressives would.
  — Gustavo Arellano, Los Angeles Times, 15 June 2023
• The most interesting thread of The Cottage involves Rustin’s trying to work against the knee-jerk sexism of the genre as Sylvia slowly discovers that her happiness shouldn’t depend on the men around her.
  — Vulture, 24 July 2023
• Is this sometimes tongue-and-cheek or knee-jerk militancy a disguise for the pursuit of the American dream, which is exported worldwide by way of Black music?
  — Harmony Holiday, Los Angeles Times, 1 Dec. 2023
• The term is derisive and refers to local people who have a negative knee-jerk reaction to any project near their community.
  — Justin Worland, TIME, 23 Oct. 2023
• And, for anyone who has a knee-jerk reaction of assuming that means everyone should be exactly the same, no, of course not, as that is never possible.
  — Erik Sherman, Forbes, 26 Mar. 2023
• But debate has raged over the effectiveness of the emergency measures that some described as a knee-jerk response to complex social issues.
  — Hilary Whiteman, CNN, 29 Mar. 2024
• And the hasty, knee-jerk responses weren’t particularly kind to his singing voice, which has—shocker!—evolved a tad after 25 years of touring, aging, and creative re-centering.
  — Ryan Reed, SPIN, 10 May 2024
• When cholesterol stepped into the spotlight as something bad that clogs your arteries, there was a knee-jerk response to quit eating foods high in cholesterol like egg yolks, shellfish, organ meats, etc.
  — Bryant Stamford, The Courier-Journal, 29 Feb. 2024
• His seemingly knee-jerk change kept many people on Twitter from seeing content on the platform after as little as 10 minutes.
  — Jennifer Jolly, USA TODAY, 20 July 2023

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knee jerk

2 of 2 noun

• Trump and his trade team’s knee jerk reaction appears to be a tariff.
  — Christine McDaniel, Fortune, 22 Mar. 2018
• Shouldn’t have gone against Americans with your knee jerk pandering to the gun grabbers.
  — Alex Leary and Steve Bousquet, miamiherald, 13 Apr. 2018
• My knee jerk reaction was to call the police and have Elenor call our neighbor friends a couple houses down.
  — Marina Gomberg, The Salt Lake Tribune, 25 Sep. 2020
• The knee jerk is, how could a team in UC’s precarious postseason position not try?
  — Paul Daugherty, Cincinnati.com, 2 Mar. 2020
• Nakano said any knee jerk reaction to the North Korean threat could risk inflaming tensions across the region.
  — Ben Westcott, CNN, 15 Sep. 2017
• Analysts anticipate a knee jerk spike in crude oil prices when the market opens Monday.
  — Dalvin Brown, USA TODAY, 15 Sep. 2019
• Despite the substantial losses the crypto market took over the weekend, King said the selloffs were merely a knee jerk reaction that happens from time to time, and not something to worry about in the long term.
  — Fortune, 6 Dec. 2021
• This transit can create confusion, and doesn't support knee jerk reactions.
  — Venus Australis, refinery29.com, 19 Oct. 2020
• But as with many of Trump's knee jerk proclamations, his threats satisfy short-term political goals but appear to contradict long-term concepts of US interests.
  — Stephen Collinson, CNN, 7 Jan. 2020
• The fact that our knee jerk reaction to a woman becoming single is one of exhilarated empowerment rather than pity or dismay shows that minds have been changed, even slightly.
  — Kathryn Lindsay, refinery29.com, 13 July 2018
• The Narendra Modi government’s knee jerk decision to curtail ties with China overnight could cost India heavily.
  — Niharika Sharma, Quartz India, 2 July 2020
• But the narrative that opposition to the reconstruction is being driven only by an overblown reverence for Bill Bowerman and Steve Prefontaine is knee jerk and, wrong.
  — OregonLive.com, 29 Apr. 2018
• The knee jerk reaction to provide ventilators for Africa is understandable.
  — Efosa Ojomo, Quartz Africa, 2 May 2020

Last Updated: 24 Jul 2024