How to Use knee-jerk in a Sentence

knee-jerk

1 of 2 adjective
  • But what about the show’s own knee-jerk hatred of the public?
    — Helen Shaw, The New Yorker, 26 June 2023
  • The only way to break through the noise of knee-jerk reactions is to spend time with the songs.
    — Brendan Le, People.com, 19 Apr. 2025
  • 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
  • Are Democrats too knee-jerk to say that all this is unlawful?
    — CBS News, 23 Feb. 2025
  • The knee-jerk reaction to doubt and blame victims must end.
    — Lauren Hersh, New York Daily News, 21 May 2025
  • The notion seemed ill-thought-out and knee-jerk, many producers said.
    — Ryan Faughnder, Los Angeles Times, 6 May 2025
  • 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
  • Over the past 10 days, the markets have been hit by two massive knee-jerk reactions.
    — Nishant Pant, CNBC, 4 Feb. 2025
  • 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
  • Investors should resist the urge for the knee-jerk reaction of selling.
    — Eric Lagatta, USA Today, 7 Apr. 2025
  • Investors should resist the urge for the knee-jerk reaction of selling.
    — Eric Lagatta, USA Today, 7 Apr. 2025
  • A lot of this is knee-jerk excuse-making, and the pendulum will swing back somewhat over the course of Trump’s second term.
    — Bill Goodykoontz, USA TODAY, 12 Nov. 2024
  • 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
  • Your knee-jerk reaction is to rush over there, drop everything and go.
    — Elyse Inamine, Bon Appetit Magazine, 24 July 2025
  • My knee-jerk reaction is that this is a bad stat to lead the league in, with heavy-hitting teams like the Yankees and Dodgers down toward the bottom.
    — Levi Weaver, New York Times, 20 May 2025
  • 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
  • Why is the knee-jerk reaction to say something horrible rather than to say something nice?
    — Anna Cafolla, Vogue, 5 Mar. 2025
  • So, beyond your knee-jerk rejection of his comment, take heed.
    — Harriette Cole, The Mercury News, 7 Feb. 2025
  • For many jacaranda lovers, the labor of preservation was a knee-jerk reaction, like shielding a child from a blow.
    — Malia Mendez, Los Angeles Times, 24 June 2025
  • Picking the Thunder to lose back-to-back games would probably be a knee-jerk overreaction to one off night.
    — Tyler Everett, MSNBC Newsweek, 26 May 2025
  • 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
  • Our knee-jerk reaction to change is usually fear or at the very least anxiety.
    — Elizabeth Baskin, Forbes, 26 Feb. 2025
  • But others saw the bill as a knee-jerk reaction that precludes sustainable change.
    — Trisha Mukherjee, ABC News, 3 Sep. 2024
  • The knee-jerk reaction to a move like this is the idea that franchise superstar Adley Rutschman now becomes expendable for the Orioles.
    — Zach Pressnell, MSNBC Newsweek, 22 Aug. 2025
  • People’s knee-jerk reaction to seeing death in nature is often not positive.
    — John Kominoski, The Conversation, 10 June 2026

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
  • Instead of taking the knee jerk reaction of picking up your toys and going home.
    — Laura Johnston, cleveland, 28 Feb. 2022
  • 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
  • The thing that keeps you from just acting out on your initial knee jerk reaction and from just acting impulsively.
    — Alaa Elassar, CNN, 24 July 2023
  • One of the most common knee jerk reactions is to move assets to cash.
    — Q.ai - Powering A Personal Wealth Movement, Forbes, 5 May 2023

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'knee-jerk.' 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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