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trigger

UK/ˈtɹɪɡə/US/ˈtɹɪɡɚ/
verbB24 meaningsVery common — you will meet it every day · #1,713 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: triggered, triggering, triggers

To trigger something is to be the small thing that starts a much bigger one. One dropped match triggers a wildfire, a peanut triggers an allergic reaction, a missed payment triggers a letter from the bank.

The noun came first: the trigger is the little curved lever your finger pulls to fire a gun, and every other use is that picture stretched. So a trigger is any cause that sets something off, such as a trigger for migraines or the trigger for the whole argument. In talk about mental health, a trigger is a sight, a sound or a word that brings back distress, and people say they were triggered by it. Someone trigger-happy shoots, or acts, far too readily, and to pull the trigger on a plan is to stop hesitating and do it. Mind the double g in the spelling.

Definitions of trigger

  1. 1verbsparkTo make something start to happen.B2~20%

    “The storm triggered floods across the whole valley.”

    synonyms: set off, spark, cause

  2. 2verbtriggerTo set off a strong emotional reaction, especially a memory of something distressing.B2~2%

    “Fireworks trigger his memories of the war.”

  3. 3nounsmallThe small lever you pull with your finger to fire a gun.B2~29%

    “He kept his finger well away from the trigger.”

  4. 4nounanythingAnything that causes something else to start, including a memory or a strong feeling.B2~49%

    “Cheese is a common trigger for her headaches.”

Shares are an estimate: a language model read 11 sentences found in the wild and placed 10 of them on a sense (1 were unclear) — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.

trigger is a cause.

Also accepted in games: spark

Phrases it lives in

  • pull the trigger — to finally decide to do something
  • trigger-happy — too ready to shoot, or to act without thinking

Where it comes from

The trigger was a tricker first. English borrowed Dutch trekker, a puller, from trekken, 'to drag, draw, pull'. It is a plain word for a plain thing, the part of a gun you pull, and everything modern about it, from triggering a reaction to a trigger warning, is that same pull passed on to something larger.

  1. Dutch

    trekken — to drag, draw, pull

  2. English, today

    trigger

Originally tricker, from Dutch trekker (“pull”), from Dutch trekken (“to drag, draw, pull”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Sharper Verbs, Mental Health & Wellbeing

Practise this word

trigger in the wild

  • People with diabetes might be relatively prone to trigger finger.

    Trigger finger

  • A small amount of energy applied to the trigger leads to the release of much more energy.

    Trigger (firearms)

  • Identifying and addressing trauma triggers is an important part of treating PTSD.

    Trauma trigger

  • A trigger warning is a message presented to an audience about the contents of a piece of media, to warn them that it contains potentially distressing content.

    Trauma trigger

  • Other devices in this category are trigger locks, bore locks, and gun safes.

    Safety (firearms)

1 / 4

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

the trekken family

triggertrek

trigger — used about once every 196 pages · #1,713 · point at the bar for the others