trigger happy

trigger-happy

1. Eager to use a weapon, i.e. to pull the trigger (of a gun). I know you're trigger-happy, but quit shooting or you'll scare off all the animals!
2. Having a tendency to do something or engage in or begin some activity with even the smallest level of enticement or provocation. Whenever I'm editing, I always get a little trigger-happy with the delete key and end up having to add some things back later. Don't pass to Rick. He's trigger-happy and shoots every time he gets the ball.
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

trigger happy

Inclined to act violently at the slightest provocation, as in They feared that the President was trigger happy and would send in troops at the drop of a hat . This expression alludes to being too eager to fire a gun. [c. 1940]
See also: happy, trigger
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.

trigger happy

If someone is trigger happy, they are too willing to use a gun. The firing continued throughout the night, trigger happy soldiers making sleep impossible.
See also: happy, trigger
Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed.
See also:
  • trigger-happy
  • aim
  • aim at
  • aim at (someone or something)
  • aim for
  • like water off a duck's back
  • safe space
  • the same fire that melts the butter hardens the egg
  • trigger off
References in periodicals archive
YES, SAYS GREG WILCOX : You only have to utter three words to prove that clubs today are too trigger happy: Sir Alex Ferguson.
'It's bleak, debilitating, and it's terrifying every time it happens, because you fear it will never go away.' When he was 33 fame hit with Trigger Happy TV, but Dom had a nervous breakdown and was prescribed anti-depressants, which he has stayed on ever since.
A new report said some office staff were guilty of "trigger happy" printing, pressing the printer button on their computer before checking how many pages were in a document, or believing they looked more important if they had mounds of paper on their desk.
Bouck and his men (who were eventually separated from their officer) began an ordeal far worse than combat--surviving the last days of the Third Reich when brutal guards were increasingly trigger happy, Allied bombers raided almost daily, and thin soup was the only sustenance.
The "Trigger Happy" shooting bench from Do-All Traps folds down into a handy storage bag/backpack for easy transportation.
mask over his head, and chase him off across the fields in a set-up that could have come straight from an episode of the British interventionist comedy show Trigger Happy TV, in which similarly absurdist minidramas are staged unannounced for an audience of bewildered passersby.
Stressing that planes would not be accidentally shot down, the general said, "I would take issue with anyone who would say the men and women in our armed forces are trigger happy. I'm more worred that they would be trigger hesitant than trigger happy."
'I fished Trigger Happy and Maple boilies over a bed of hemp seed and although I fished right through two nights all the fish were caught during daytime,' said the delighted 29-year-old carp fanatic.
THOUSANDS of wild animals and pets are being deliberately maimed or killed by trigger happy airgun users, the RSPCA has warned.
Transport Minister Ephraim Sneh asked: "Why are three terrorists driving around in a car filled with explosives, if not to blow it up somewhere?" FM Peres added: "We're not trigger happy...
"Hollywood needs to remember that if it's taking away the dynamic interactivity that's at the heart of any good video game, it needs to replace it with something that films can do better than games can," says Steven Poole, author of Trigger Happy: Video Games and the Future of Entertainment.
The 34-year-old, from Limerick, plays trigger happy Tulip O'Hare in the comic book series.
Srinagar -- Incarcerated Jammu Kashmir liberation front (JKLF) Chairman Muhammad Yasin Malik has strongly condemned the reign of terror unleashed against people of Jammu Kashmir throughout Kashmir valley during which more than two dozen innocents have fallen to the bullets of trigger happy Indian soldiers and police.
Trigger Happy TV, aired in 2000 on Channel 4, was not a hit with everyone.
Just ask Dom Joly, the man behind two hidden camera shows more than 10 years apart - the cult favourite Trigger Happy TV and now Fool Britannia, which returns for a second series.