hair trigger
5
7.8
- noun
- Specialized
:
gatillo sensible
- About 3,000 Russian and 2,500 U.S. warheads are on "hair-trigger" alert, ready to fire in a few minutes' notice.
- hair-trigger alert
They have front and back sights and they have a hair trigger.
- They have front and back sights and they have a hair trigger.
Examples
-
The two countries' thousands of nuclear weapons still stand poised on hair-trigger alert against each other.
Academic text (2000) -
This gun's got a hair trigger.
-
This gun has a hair trigger.
-
Russia and the United States continue to maintain more than 4,000 on hair-trigger alert, ready to be fired in minutes.
Academic text (2005) -
But Goldilocks had a Remington semiautomatic with a scope and a hair trigger.
-
In his haste, Austin had turned the small pressure-adjusting screw next to the trigger in the wrong direction and set the pistol with a hair trigger.
Fiction book (1999) -
The rifle has a hair trigger, making it easy to fire with just a light touch.
-
When handling a gun with a hair trigger, it's important to exercise great caution.
-
The sniper's weapon is known for its hair trigger, allowing for precise shooting at a moment's notice.
How Sensitive
- Specialized
5
7.8
Surface Forms
Morphology
The compound combines 'hair' (suggesting something very small or delicate) with 'trigger' (a device that causes firing), so the sense of a trigger that responds to very slight pressure is directly inferable from the parts. The metaphorical use is straightforward and follows common cross-linguistic patterns, so a B1 learner who knows both words would readily understand this meaning.
Etymology
The noun hair trigger comes from the image of a gun trigger so light that a single hair could move the trigger and make the gun fire. So, it now means 'very sensitive' or 'can be set off easily'.