Make Your Point: HAIR-TRIGGER

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pronounce HAIR-TRIGGER:

HAIR trig ur

connect this word to others:

If you dislike how the word hair-trigger connotes a weapon, I don't blame you! Instead of hair-trigger, how about touchy, sensitive, volatile, or precarious instead?

Below, I've listed several other terms that also connote weaponry. For each, see if you can come up with a synonym that doesn't suggest weapons.

1. Instead of calling something a barrage (a barrier of gunfire), call it... ?

2. Instead of calling something scattershot (firing off in many directions), call it... ?

3. Instead of calling something a brickbat (a mean comment hurled like a chunk of brick), call it... ?

If you'd like to see my suggested synonyms, highlight the hidden white text here: 1: barrier; 2: sloppy; 3: swipe.

definition:

The word "hair-trigger" dates back to about 1795 in English. It describes firearms that go off at the slightest, gentlest of touches, like that of a single hair.

In a figurative sense, a hair-trigger thing, like a hair-trigger temper or personality, is the kind that reacts explosively to very small things.

grammatical bits:

Part of speech:

Adjective: "She has a hair-trigger laugh."

Also a noun: "Her laugh was hung on a hair trigger, to go off at every jest and fancy" (S. R. Crockett).

Other forms:

If you prefer, leave off the hyphen: "She has a hair trigger laugh."

how to use it:

To imply that someone is easily provoked, often into loud reactions or strong emotions, say that they have hair-trigger reactions, responses, tempers, or mood swings.

Or, say that they're on a hair-trigger alert.

Or, more lightheartedly, say they have a hair-trigger laugh.

You could even say that a person IS a hair-trigger. The Los Angeles Times referred to Elon Musk as "a hair trigger of an executive who's quick to fire people whether they deserve it or not."

examples:

"Armed and on hair-trigger alert, the country's 400 ICBMs are deeply entrenched — not only within underground silos scattered across five states, but also in the mindsets of the U.S. political establishment."
— Norman Solomon, Salon, 15 December 2021

"He's always been a guy without boundaries, a chronic inappropriate kidder with a hair trigger temper."
— Mary Pols, Time, 14 October 2010

has this page helped you understand "hair-trigger"?

Awesome, I'm glad it helped!

Thanks for letting me know!
If you have any questions about this word, please message me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.

study it:

Explain the meaning of "hair-trigger" without saying "instantaneous" or "extremely sensitive."

try it out:

Check out this description of Charlie, a character in H. G. Bissinger's Friday Night Lights:

"His sense of right and wrong had been mounted on a hair trigger. If he thought you were jacking with him, he didn't go... making empty threats about revenge. He just put up his fists right there."

Talk about what it means for someone's "sense of right and wrong" to be "mounted on a hair trigger." And, do you know anyone in real life that fits that description?

before you review, play:

Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.

Our game for this month is the Game of Venery!

Longtime readers may recognize this game from 2019, when we played with terms from James Lipton's book An Exaltation of Larks. This time, we’ll play with terms from Daniel E. Meyers's online Collective Noun Catalog.

To play, check out the two templates below, and have fun filling them in and sharing your inventions with your family. You can be as lofty, silly, or bawdy as you like. To see the way the terms actually appear in Meyers’s catalog, scroll to the bottom of the issue.

Try these today:

1. a banality of _____

2. a/an _____ of errands

review this word:

1. A near opposite of HAIR-TRIGGER is

A. BALD.
B. LONG-FUSED.
C. SHORT-LIVED.

2. A character in the novel Dry, aptly described as "hair-trigger," _____.

A. muses aloud, "When we've lost the strength to save ourselves, we somehow find the strength to save each other"
B. snaps at another character, "If you don't change that [country music station], I will shoot you, and then shoot myself"
C. rambles, "Top Ramen, my favorite comfort food—because it's comforting to know that in the event of nuclear fallout, my food has enough MSG and preservatives to out-survive all of mankind"

a final word:

I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love.

I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words.

From my blog:
On vocabulary...
  36 ways to study words.
  Why we forget words, & how to remember them.
  How to use sophisticated words without being awkward.
On writing...
How to improve any sentence.
How to motivate our kids to write.
How to stop procrastinating and start writing.
How to bulk up your writing when you have to meet a word count.

From my heart: a profound thanks to the generous patrons, donors, and sponsors that make it possible for me to write these emails. If you'd like to be a patron or a donor, please click here. If you'd like to be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.

A disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.

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