How to Use knee-jerk in a Sentence

knee-jerk

adjective
Definition of knee-jerknext
Synonyms for knee-jerknext
  • But what about the show’s own knee-jerk hatred of the public?
    — Helen Shaw, The New Yorker, 26 June 2023
  • Ed could tell that Joe knew his knee-jerk reaction to check his phone was the wrong thing to do.
    — Phil Blair, San Diego Union-Tribune, 14 May 2023
  • One of the hazards of a certain age is the knee-jerk tendency to reminisce on the good ol’ days.
    — Kevin Sherrington, Dallas News, 17 Mar. 2023
  • But that does not indicate knee-jerk reactions on the part of Tunisians.
    — Michael Robbins, Foreign Affairs, 14 Dec. 2023
  • The knee-jerk response would be to say that nothing has really changed.
    — Fidel Martinez, Los Angeles Times, 25 May 2023
  • Since Aries tends to be impatient, an Aries Moon may be prone to knee-jerk reactions.
    — Women's Health, 12 May 2023
  • In his view, the ban is the culmination of nearly two years of him and his team scrutinizing the app, not some knee-jerk move.
    — Sapna Maheshwari, New York Times, 2 Sep. 2023
  • That makes sense from an emotional, knee-jerk standpoint.
    — Mark Zeigler, San Diego Union-Tribune, 31 July 2023
  • What happened in the past may no longer apply to what will happen in the future, and you’re still left making knee-jerk decisions and hoping for the best.
    — Rhett Power, Forbes, 18 Feb. 2024
  • Students came for zombies but stayed for the chance to learn more about themselves and their knee-jerk reactions to catastrophe, Stutzky said.
    — Scottie Andrew, CNN, 13 Mar. 2023
  • So when the pandemic hit, my knee-jerk reaction was to just immerse myself in music and work.
    — William E. Ketchum Iii, Billboard, 5 Apr. 2023
  • As knee-jerk reactions to AI faded over the course of the year, new theories cropped up about AI’s trajectory.
    — Chloe Berger, Fortune, 25 Mar. 2024
  • None of that might stem the knee-jerk opposition to the four-day week among businesses and their water carriers on Capitol Hill.
    — Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times, 21 Mar. 2024
  • Such a knee-jerk response reflects deep ignorance of the art and conflict that Little Richard epitomized.
    — Armond White, National Review, 21 Apr. 2023
  • There would be no crying about civilian deaths in the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, no knee-jerk second-guessing of the Bush administration.
    — Jim Rutenberg, New York Times, 6 Apr. 2023
  • But there’s a bit more nuance to what looks like a knee-jerk response to the financial rocket fuel of low interest rates, analysts say.
    — Paul Davidson, USA TODAY, 24 Mar. 2024
  • My knee-jerk reaction was to call them sellouts, or deluded, as many progressives would.
    — Gustavo Arellano, Los Angeles Times, 15 June 2023
  • The most interesting thread of The Cottage involves Rustin’s trying to work against the knee-jerk sexism of the genre as Sylvia slowly discovers that her happiness shouldn’t depend on the men around her.
    — Vulture, 24 July 2023
  • Is this sometimes tongue-and-cheek or knee-jerk militancy a disguise for the pursuit of the American dream, which is exported worldwide by way of Black music?
    — Harmony Holiday, Los Angeles Times, 1 Dec. 2023
  • The term is derisive and refers to local people who have a negative knee-jerk reaction to any project near their community.
    — Justin Worland, TIME, 23 Oct. 2023
  • And, for anyone who has a knee-jerk reaction of assuming that means everyone should be exactly the same, no, of course not, as that is never possible.
    — Erik Sherman, Forbes, 26 Mar. 2023
  • But debate has raged over the effectiveness of the emergency measures that some described as a knee-jerk response to complex social issues.
    — Hilary Whiteman, CNN, 29 Mar. 2024
  • When cholesterol stepped into the spotlight as something bad that clogs your arteries, there was a knee-jerk response to quit eating foods high in cholesterol like egg yolks, shellfish, organ meats, etc.
    — Bryant Stamford, The Courier-Journal, 29 Feb. 2024
  • His seemingly knee-jerk change kept many people on Twitter from seeing content on the platform after as little as 10 minutes.
    — Jennifer Jolly, USA TODAY, 20 July 2023
  • The Times received knee-jerk assessments of the situation from five front-office executives and agents Thursday.
    — Jorge Castillo, Los Angeles Times, 24 Aug. 2023
  • Human rights campaigners in Pakistan are cautioning against a knee-jerk reaction from the government.
    — Hasan Ali, The Christian Science Monitor, 5 Oct. 2023
  • In your insecure, early stages of development, your knee-jerk reaction when an issue is called out, may be to justify your methods, deflect from the point, or shift blame elsewhere.
    — Ebony Flake, Essence, 5 Feb. 2024
  • Either way, the market’s knee-jerk reaction to CFO departures is that they are normally associated with bad news.
    — Bysheryl Estrada, Fortune, 7 Aug. 2023
  • After layoffs, the knee-jerk reaction is for companies to discourage people from discussing what happened.
    — Lila MacLellan, Fortune, 20 Mar. 2023
  • At a time when violent crime is at a generational peak, when the knee-jerk response to young criminals is to lock ’em up, Yao is asking us to consider whether maximum sentencing for young offenders is the answer.
    — Petula Dvorak, Washington Post, 22 Feb. 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'knee-jerk.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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