trigger
/ˈtɹɪɡɚ/ noun B1- A finger-operated lever used to fire a gun. · Just pull the trigger.
- A similar device used to activate any mechanism.
- An event that initiates others, or incites a response. · Sleeping in an unfamiliar room can be a trigger for sleepwalking.
- Something that triggers an ASMR response.
- A cue that triggers a posthypnotic suggestion.
- A concept or image that upsets somebody by sparking a negative emotional response. · emotional trigger· I can't watch that violent film. Blood is one of my triggers.
- An event, experience or other stimulus that initiates a traumatic memory or a strong reaction in a person.
- An electronic transducer allowing a drum, cymbal, etc. to control an electronic drum unit or similar device.
Plural triggers
From the library
I stooped, panting, and pressed my pistol to the dreadful, shimmering head, but it was useless to press the trigger.
Lying across his chest was a curious weapon, a shotgun with the barrel sawed off a foot in front of the triggers.
The triggers had been wired together, so as to make the simultaneous discharge more destructive.
I have always held, too, that pistol practice should be distinctly an open-air pastime; and when Holmes, in one of his queer humours, would sit in an armchair with his hair-trigger and a hundred Boxer cartridges, and proceed to adorn the opposite wall with a patriotic V.
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