See Also: EKG trigger(medicine)
Trigger(medicine)
trigger man(dictionary)
trigger(1)(dictionary)
trigger(2)(dictionary)
hair trigger(dictionary)
hair-trigger(dictionary)
trigger 1, noun(dictionary)
trigger 2, verb(dictionary)
Schmitt trigger(dictionary)

trigger(1) (iou)



trigger noun1 & verb. Also (earlier and dial.) tricker. E17.
[Dutch trekker, from trekken pull: see TREK verb, -ER1.]
A. noun.
A movable catch or lever for releasing a spring or catch and so setting off a mechanism; spec. (a) a catch for releasing the hammer of a gunlock on pressure by the finger (freq. in pull the trigger); (b) a lever or snib for releasing the string of a crossbow. Also (fig.), an event, occurrence, etc., that sets off a chain reaction. E17.
quick on the trigger quick to respond.
C. S. Forester Randall..squeezed the trigger, aimed and fired. T. Hooper There must therefore be some trigger which initiates..production.
Electronics.
a. A trigger circuit or trigger tube. M20.
b. A momentary signal or change in signal level that causes a change of state in a trigger tube or other device. M20.
A fission bomb built into a fusion bomb in order to initiate the fusion reaction. M20.
An electronic device attached to a drum which causes sampled sounds to be played when the drumhead is struck. L20.
Comb.: trigger area Physiology & Medicine a sensitive area of the body, stimulation or irritation of which causes a specific effect in another part; trigger circuit Electronics a circuit that behaves like a trigger tube; a circuit for producing a trigger pulse; trigger finger (a) the forefinger of the right hand (as that with which the trigger of a gun is most easily pulled); (b) Medicine a defect of a finger joint, causing the finger to jerk or snap open when extended; trigger fish any of various deep-bodied fishes of the family Balistidae, in which the large first spine of the dorsal fin can only be depressed by releasing the second, and which are found mainly in inshore tropical waters; trigger-hair Zoology a fine hair or filament at the mouth of a nematocyst in some coelenterates, which operates like a trigger in emission of the stinging hair; trigger-happiness colloq. the state of being trigger-happy (lit. & fig.); trigger-happy adjective (colloq.) ready or eager to shoot on the least provocation (lit. & fig.); trigger man slang (chiefly US) a gunman; trigger-plant = STYLIDIUM; trigger-point (a) Physiology & Medicine = trigger area above; (b) US a price level at which price controls are imposed or re-imposed; trigger price US a minimum selling price for steel imported into the US, such that any steel imports below that price incur investigation to ensure that dumping is not taking place; trigger pulse Electronics a pulse that acts as a trigger (see sense 2b above); trigger tube Electronics a vacuum tube that has two operating states and changes rapidly from one to the other in response to a momentary application of, or change in, a signal.
b. verb.
verb trans. Release the trigger of a mechanism; esp. fire (a gun etc.) by pressure on the trigger; fig. set (an action or process) in motion (freq. foll. by off); initiate, precipitate. Usu. in pass. M20.
New York The Israeli invasion of Lebanon and the mass murder that triggered it. L. Deighton Devices that fire..pieces of metal and are triggered by anyone going near them.
Electronics.
a. verb trans. Initiate a change of state or a cycle of behaviour in (a device). M20.
b. verb intrans. Of an electronic device: change state in response to a momentarily applied signal. M20.
triggerable adjective able to be triggered M20.
triggered adjective provided with or activated by a trigger, that has been triggered M20.
triggerless adjective without a trigger E19.