How to Use hair-trigger in a Sentence

hair-trigger

1 of 2 adjective
  • They’re staffed around the clock and kept on hair-trigger alert.
    — Kurt Snibbe, Oc Register, 6 Aug. 2025
  • There still tends to be more patience on the hoops side as far as hair-trigger firings or Lane Kiffin-style departures.
    — Justin Williams, New York Times, 25 Mar. 2026
  • Cramped passengers are ruled not by bonhomie but by hair-trigger aggression, while flight crews seek compliance rather than kinship.
    — Ian Bogost, The Atlantic, 12 June 2026
  • His unfiltered personality and hair-trigger antics have stretched the limits of what a mascot can do — and get away with.
    — Samantha Agate, Charlotte Observer, 28 Apr. 2026
  • But Halfmann suspects this hair-trigger system is needlessly killing brain cells in diseases like Alzheimer's.
    — Jon Hamilton, NPR, 16 Oct. 2025
  • The movie had moments of discordant comedy, but Sidney Lumet staged it in his hair-trigger fluorescent vérité style.
    — Owen Gleiberman, Variety, 31 Mar. 2026
  • His hair-trigger homemade contraption pressured all three major networks into giving Kiritsis airtime to explain his grievances to the public.
    — Amy Nicholson, Los Angeles Times, 8 Jan. 2026
  • But by the time events with Timothée Chalamet’s Marty come to a head, Ferrara has drawn a sinister character — a gangster with a hair-trigger finger on his gun who will kill to get back his dog and money, in that order.
    — Jenelle Riley, Variety, 2 Jan. 2026
  • This is a man who shows up at a bank with two dubious associates — the glowering, hair-trigger Sal (Moss-Bachrach) and, until his stomach gives out, the wobbling hot mess Ray-Ray (Christopher Sears) — and a bunch of guns.
    — Sara Holdren, Vulture, 31 Mar. 2026

hair trigger

2 of 2 noun
  • Long-term stress can mean our fight-or-flight response does its thing on a hair trigger.
    — Eleanor Morgan, refinery29.com, 12 Apr. 2023
  • Long-term stress can mean our fight-or-flight response does its thing on a hair trigger.
    — Eleanor Morgan, refinery29.com, 12 Nov. 2021
  • His letters to the editor, fired on a hair trigger, left a trail of gun smoke.
    — Los Angeles Times, 12 July 2021
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • The controller is notable for mechanical buttons that respond on a hair trigger.
    — Popular Science, 9 June 2020
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • Several Middle Eastern conflicts are only a hair trigger away from a major escalation.
    — Joost Hiltermann, Foreign Affairs, 1 Aug. 2023
  • 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
  • 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
  • Abbott wears Danny easily and at the requisite scale — his thick accent, his hair trigger, his gnawing befuddlement and vulnerability.
    — Sara Holdren, Vulture, 14 Nov. 2023
  • Today, nine nations possess nuclear arsenals, comprising more than 12,000 warheads in total, including many that are set on a virtual hair trigger.
    — Ross Andersen, The Atlantic, 11 Mar. 2026
  • Moderation is a perennial problem on social media, but based on social media posts and The Verge staff’s own experiences, Meta is currently banning and restricting users on a hair trigger.
    — Umar Shakir, The Verge, 9 Oct. 2024
  • 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
  • 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

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'hair-trigger.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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