as in belligerent
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Recent Examples of trigger-happy
We should be asked how our youth retain the impulse to be free when trigger-happy Israeli soldiers and snipers are ordered to kill unarmed children demanding their human rights.
—
Literary Hub,
11 Feb. 2026
The fifth pick in the 2025 draft has shown flashes as a scorer and pull-up shooter and has surprised many with his ability to make quick-decision passes, something that wasn’t exactly a feature of his game in his one trigger-happy season at Rutgers.
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John Hollinger,
New York Times,
3 Feb. 2026
The Iranian government has long maintained a rather trigger-happy approach to censorship, to put it mildly.
—
David Ehrlich,
IndieWire,
28 Jan. 2026
On one hand, some argue that Good was attempting to leave the scene, and a trigger-happy ICE agent fired his weapon at her, an abuse of authority.
—
Andrew Adeolu,
CBS News,
11 Jan. 2026
See All Example Sentences for trigger-happy
Literary Hub,
11 Feb. 2026
The fifth pick in the 2025 draft has shown flashes as a scorer and pull-up shooter and has surprised many with his ability to make quick-decision passes, something that wasn’t exactly a feature of his game in his one trigger-happy season at Rutgers.
—
John Hollinger,
New York Times,
3 Feb. 2026
The Iranian government has long maintained a rather trigger-happy approach to censorship, to put it mildly.
—
David Ehrlich,
IndieWire,
28 Jan. 2026
On one hand, some argue that Good was attempting to leave the scene, and a trigger-happy ICE agent fired his weapon at her, an abuse of authority.
—
Andrew Adeolu,
CBS News,
11 Jan. 2026
See All Example Sentences for trigger-happy
Recent Examples of Synonyms for trigger-happy
Adjective
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When authenticity becomes uncompromising, candor turns belligerent, consistency becomes rigid, or principled decision-making morphs into dogmatism, even the best intentions can backfire.
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Athens was a belligerent city-state that fell victim to its own aggressions.
Adjective
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Vance, who privately voiced his concerns about conflict with Iran in the lead-up to the war, is pugnacious and transactional.
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That stretch included a famously pugnacious friendly with Australia in which Pochettino challenged his players at halftime to raise their level of competitiveness.
Adjective
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At least, that’s what the bellicose rhetoric from Tehran suggests.
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At National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, a controversial but popular Russian studies program introduced last fall has nothing to do with the glories of imperial Russia and everything to do with the thinking and motivations of the bellicose power next door.
Adjective
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The release says a 29-year-old man became combative with first responders, and a paramedic shot him.
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Too good to be a benchwarmer, in a starting line-up, the Brazilian’s all-action qualities may align best with Rice to give Arsenal another combative and forward-thinking option in their engine room.
Adjective
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The poem that precedes it, the Iliad, is a cruel and beautiful work, the ultimate story of war; the Odyssey has its warlike passages, but its central energies seem almost commonplace beside the merciless fury of Achilles.
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One of the world’s most cooperative mammals is also one of its most warlike.
Adjective
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The goal is gentle smoke and indirect heat rather than aggressive flames.
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Right now, the multi-trillion-dollar global apparel industry is undergoing an aggressive technological shift, adopting artificial intelligence as a production standard rather than an experimental pilot.
Adjective
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Yet Piker himself has followed the DSA’s militant line, repeatedly praising authoritarian regimes such as China’s, Cuba’s, and Russia’s, as well as terrorist groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah.
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There are also concerns that fighting between Israel and the Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon could escalate once more and derail future talks.
Adjective
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Darren McCarty, a truculent member of the Red Wings who had multiple fights with Lemieux, posted a broken heart emoji on social media and heard the news from Draper.
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The pushback is largely coming from Democrats and illustrates the challenges Musk’s collection of companies are receiving as the famously impulsive and truculent multi-billionaire has turned himself into a political lightning rod.
Cite this Entry
“Trigger-happy.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/trigger-happy. Accessed 5 Jul. 2026.
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