| 释义 |
▪ I. trigger, n.1|ˈtrɪgə(r)|
Forms: α. 7–8 (9 dial.) tricker, (7 trycker); β. 8 triger, 7– trigger.
[In form tricker, ad. Du. trekker a trigger, f. trekken to pull: see trek. The form trigger occurs in 1660, but tricker remained the usual form down to c 1750, and is still in dialect use from Scotland to the English Midlands.]
1. A movable catch or lever the pulling or pressing of which releases a detent or spring, and sets some force or mechanism in action, e.g. springs a trap.
1621Markham Prev. Hunger 39 Hard by this loope [of the net] shall there be fastened..a little broad thin trycker, made sharpe and equall at both ends. Ibid. 40 The loope and the tricker. 1735Phil. Trans. XXXIX. 84 That Tricker has a Pin. 1764Museum Rust. III. lxv. 298 The triggers to throw the rake behind the roots. 1853Sir H. Douglas Milit. Bridges vi. (ed. 3) 301 The ram was worked by hand-ropes (fig. 8) attached to the fall, which is a much quicker way than by the trigger and drop. 1885C. G. W. Lock Workshop Receipts Ser. iv. 428/2 (Photography) A trigger is provided for releasing the shutter. 1913E. T. Ruthven-Murray Let. 30 Dec., If the tram-car strikes anything on the track, the gate is pushed backwards and releases a ‘trigger’ (in this case a catch sustaining the tray) which allows the tray to fall so that it glides along on the road and scoops up the obstruction.
2. spec.
a. A small steel catch which, on being ‘drawn’, ‘pulled’, or pressed by the finger, releases the hammer of a gun-lock. Hence to pull trigger, to fire a gun (at, on).
α1622F. Markham Bk. War i. ix. 35 Let the Cocks and Trickers be nimble to goe and come. 1660Boyle New Exp. Phys. Mech. xiv. 89 We took a Pistol.., and..ty'd to the Tricker one end of a string. Ibid. 100 The Trigger was pull'd. 1759Adam Smith Mor. Sent. ii. iii. (1781) 161 Each of them draws the tricker of a gun. 1828Moir Mansie Wauch xii, It was an act of desperation to draw the tricker.
β1660[see α]. 1688Capt. J. S. Art of War 17 Your musquet being levelled breast high with your fingers upon the trigger. 1753Hanway Trav. (1762) II. i. xi. 58 We could not pull the trigers of their muskets. 1868Rep. to Govt. U.S. Munitions War 24 The trigger is pulled, h is drawn down and the spring, released, darts the needle through the guide into the cartridge, the blunt end of the needle sharply striking the fulminate and thus igniting the charge. 1888‘R. Boldrewood’ Robbery under Arms xlix, Not once or twice..you've pulled trigger on me.
b. A lever or snib in a cross-bow the pulling or pressing of which releases the string.
1681Grew Musæum i. v. iii. 113 Just as when a Cross-Bow is let off by pulling down the Tricker. 1688R. Holme Armoury iii. xvi. (Roxb.) 77/1 The string is..lett fly by a Tricker or button. 1846Greener Sc. Gunnery 12 It remained thus until the trigger of the cross-bow suggested a contrivance to convey, with equal certainty and greater rapidity, the burning match to the pan.
3. In fig. and allusive uses. in the drawing of a trigger, in a moment, instantaneously. quick on the trigger, quick to act in response to a suggestion, to take advantage of a situation, or the like.
1706Farquhar Recruit. Officer i. i, This is the cap of honour, it dubs a man a gentleman in the drawing of a tricker. 1808M. L. Weems Let. 22 Apr. in E. E. F. Skeel M. L. Weems: Works & Ways (1929) II. 377, I trust that all your Aids will be quick on the trigger. 1842C. M. Kirkland Forest Life II. xlvii. 223 ‘Pretty quick on the trigger!’ muttered Uncle William. 1871Tyndall Fragm. Sc. (1879) II. ii. 12 Prayer is the trigger which liberates the Divine power. 1887G. H. Darwin in Leisure Hour May 354/2 The attraction of the moon or the variation in atmospheric pressure pulls the trigger. 1905Daily Chron. 16 Feb. 4/5 A born musical leader, fertile in ideas, quick on the trigger. 1946Lancet 19 Jan. 97/1 A theory of the nervous initiation of contraction—the trigger without which voluntary muscle remains inert. 1961M. Laski Ecstasy ii. 16 Of the circumstances in which they found themselves when ecstasy took place, they identified certain objects, events, and ideas as standing in some kind of a causal relationship to their ecstatic experiences. These objects, events, and ideas I am calling triggers. 1977J. L. Harper Population Biol. of Plants 64 Triggers to development which predict a changing environment will generally be more efficient than those that are themselves the changed conditions.
4. Electronics.
a. A trigger circuit or trigger tube.
1945Electronic Engin. XVII. 329/1 The charging circuit producing the used forward stroke operates continuously even through the flyback period when the trigger is conducting. 1946[see flip-flop n. e]. 1962, etc. [see Schmitt]. 1969J. J. Sparkes Transistor Switching v. 126 The reasons should be understood for always using a negative-going trigger to drive npn transistors off rather than a positive one to drive them into the conducting state. 1981J. C. Sprott Introd. Mod. Electronics x. 239 The Schmitt trigger is useful..for generating square waves from a sinusoidal input.
b. A momentary signal or change in signal level that causes a change of state in a trigger tube or other device.
1948Gloss. Computer Terms (Mass. Inst. Technol. Servomechanisms Lab. Rep. R-138) 11 Trigger. See trigger pulse. 1953Electronic Engin. XXV. 143/1 A trigger derived from the phantastron is used to initiate the multivibrator circuit. 1979M. M. Mano Digital Logic & Computer Design vi. 210 Asynchronous flip-flops..require an input trigger defined by a change of signal level... Clocked flip-flops are triggered by pulses.
5. A fission bomb built into a fusion bomb in order to initiate the fusion reaction.
1955Times 13 Aug. 5/4 It was a question of arranging the proper conditions, and there was no reason why fusion energy should not be obtained without the use of a fission bomb as ‘the trigger’. 1969Listener 5 June 773/3 It's necessary to have a trigger made of an ordinary fission bomb, and there is good evidence that this must consist of fissile uranium or uranium-235 and not fissile plutonium. 1982New Scientist 2 Sept. 642/1 The X-rays produced by the triggers are absorbed and re-emitted by an ellipsoidal casing of 238U, and the fraction which is re-emitted inwards goes on to strike the main bulk of the thermonuclear fuel.
6. attrib. and Comb., as trigger-action, trigger-catch, trigger-detent, trigger effect, trigger-guard (guard n. 16 d), trigger-jig (jig n.1 6), trigger-line, trigger-plate, trigger-pull, trigger-pulling, trigger question, trigger-string, trigger switch, trigger-touch, trigger word; trigger-pulling adj.; trigger area Phys. and Path., a sensitive area of the body, irritation of which causes some special effect in another part (so trigger point); trigger-block, a piece of mechanism in a steam-engine, which automatically allows the steam-valve to close when a certain speed is attained; trigger circuit Electronics, a circuit that behaves like a trigger tube; also, a circuit for producing a trigger pulse; trigger finger, (a) the forefinger of the right hand, with which the trigger of a fire-arm is pulled; (b) Path., an affection of a finger (see quot. 1890); trigger-fish, a fish of the family Balistidæ; so called because the large first ray of the dorsal fin is depressed by depression of the second, like the hammer of a gun-lock by the trigger; trigger-hair Zool., a fine hair or filament at the mouth of a thread-cell in some cœlenterates, which operates like a trigger in emission of the stinging-hair; trigger-happy a. colloq. [-happy], over-ready to shoot at anything at any time or on slight provocation; also transf. and fig.; hence trigger-happiness; trigger man slang (chiefly U.S.), a gunman; a hired thug or bodyguard; also fig.; trigger-plant, a plant of the genus Candollea (formerly Stylidium), characterized by the two stamens being united with the style into a highly irritable column; trigger-point, (a) Phys. and Path. (cf. trigger area above); (b) U.S., a price level at which price controls are imposed or re-imposed; trigger price U.S., a minimum selling price for steel imported into the U.S., 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 (sense 4 b 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. See also tricker-firelock, tricker-lock (tricker2).
1915W. M. Bayliss Princ. Gen. Physiol. x. 304 The difference between what is sometimes called ‘*trigger action’ and catalysis. Ibid., Supersaturated solutions are cases of ‘trigger action’. They remain indefinitely as such until infected with a crystal, and then the rate of crystallisation is independent of the amount of crystals added. 1950A. Huxley Lett. (1969) 623 Trivial acts of selfishness and wantonness may release, as though by a kind of trigger action, a huge avalanche of tragic destiny.
1891Cent. Dict., *Trigger area. 1900Dorland Med. Dict. (1913), Trigger area, an area stimulation or irritation of which may cause physiologic or pathologic changes in another area.
1893D. K. Clark Steam Engine III. 58 A square *trigger-block..slides vertically through..the catch-block.
1861Fairbairn Iron 123 The movement of the roller o causes the shoulder of the rod P to get under the point of the *trigger-catch u; the valve is by these means kept closed till the whole force of the blow is struck. 1868Rep. to Govt. U.S. Munitions War 24 The small lock-tube is drawn back, pulling with it..the needle-bolt, till the shoulder a is caught behind the trigger-catch.
1938Rev. Sci. Instruments IX. 223/1 Another *trigger circuit which has inherent possibilities as a counting circuit is shown in Fig. 2. 1951,1962[see bistable a.]. 1974A. Van der Ziel Introd. Electronics xi. 262 (caption) Transistor monostable circuit with trigger circuit.
1881Greener Gun 470 The *trigger-comb arrangement is very ingenious, and is such that the barrels may be fired simultaneously or in quick succession, by adjusting a small screw.
1868Rep. to Govt. U.S. Munitions War 24 The needle-bolt, and with it the needle, is held back by the shoulder a, catching against the *trigger-detent h.
1931Prof. Papers Inst. Post Office Electr. Engineers No. 136. 19 The adjustments were such as to avoid definitely the ‘*trigger’ effect. 1949M. Mead Male & Female x. 218 In the..patterning of a woman's sexual receptivity now one part of the body, now another,..may be sensitive enough to develop a trigger effect.
1829W. H. Maxwell Stories of Waterloo I. 223 Removing Mr. Clinch's *trigger-finger. 1890Billings Med. Dict., Trigger finger, sudden arrest of the movement of extension (or, less frequently, of flexion) of one of the fingers, until a special effort is made, when the movement is completed with a snap or jerk.
1849H. Melville Mardi I. xlviii. 131 The rank and file of the *Trigger-fish—so called from their quaint dorsal fins being set in their backs with a conical curve, as if at half-cock. 1882Ogilvie, Trigger-fish. 1884Longm. Mag. Mar. 529 Trigger-fish and trunk-fish. 1908Westm. Gaz. 3 Oct. 6/1 It penetrates into the body of the oyster in the expectation of its host being broken up and eaten by the trigger-fish.
1859Musketry Instr. 38 To see that every man holds his rifle firmly with the left hand;..that the fingers of the right hand are behind the *trigger guard. 1868Rep. to Govt. U.S. Munitions of War 51 The breech-block..works vertically in the shoe, being depressed or elevated by a hinged lever, fitting with a catch, over the trigger-guard.
1945C. Burney Dungeon Democracy iii. 82 There was much *trigger-happiness, men shooting each other, shooting themselves and shooting into thin air. 1970Daily Tel. 23 Mar. 16 The trigger-happiness with which workers are now ready and eager to enforce their fantastically increased claims by industrial action..leaves Britain with the choice between being ruined by runaway inflation or by a series of disastrous strikes. 1978N. Freeling Night Lords xxi. 95 Suddenly she said ‘Have you killed people?’.. I thought it the usual accusation of trigger-happiness.
1943F. J. Bell Condition Red 190 Yes, they missed us, and the G hereby absolves whoever it was along that section of coast that got a little *trigger-happy early one December morning. 1946Archit. Rev. CI. 47/1 On the Acropolis itself a group of trigger-happy gendarmerie lounged with an assumed nonchalance by the lower entrance. 1957Time 2 Sept. 19/1 Some trigger-happy U.S. radio commentators..helped confuse it further by proclaiming that Syria was already Russia's newest satellite. 1971H. Wilson Labour Govt. xxxvi. 937 It was fairly clear that the main issues now were relief and the avoidance of atrocities, which, if they occurred, would be most likely to be caused by trigger-happy young soldiers. 1974F. Warner Meeting Ends i. ii. 7 If only you knew how trigger-happy he is when he gets a dialling tone. 1984Miami Herald 6 Apr. 12 a/2 We have a president who is trigger-happy and who commits troops for impossible missions.
1795R. Dodd Rep. Hartlepool 16 The seaman, standing with the *trigger-line in his hand, at a sufficient distance from the gun's recoil.
1930Amer. Mercury Dec. 458/2 *Trigger man, an assassin; a body guard. ‘He's trigger man for Big Tony.’ 1934Sun (Baltimore) 22 Aug. 13/1, I was the triggerman in both hold-ups. 1954‘N. Blake’ Whisper in Gloom iii. 42 A graceful, self-possessed, cat-like walk..the tread of the trigger-man. 1974Times 2 May 6/5 P[resident]... You feel that really the trigger man was really Colson on this thing? D[ean] No... He was just in the chain. 1977Hongkong Standard 12 Apr. 9/3 He was said to be a senior triggerman—an overseer of ‘hit men’—for reputed mob boss Anthony ‘Big Tuna’ Accardo. 1981W. Safire in N.Y. Times Mag. 1 Mar. 9/3 The triggerman of this slim but explosive volume is described on the cover as ‘formerly professor of Romance languages and literatures at Harvard University, where he is now emeritus professor’.
1884Miller Plant-n., *Trigger-plant, Stylidium graminifolium and other species.
1860All Year Round No. 71. 500 The stock is divided into..lock⁓side, head, small, trigger-guard, *trigger-plate, trigger [etc.].
1891Cent. Dict., *Trigger point. 1900in Dorland Med. Dict. (1913). 1952N.Y. Times (Late City Ed.) 12 Aug. 32/6 The federation estimates that at the beginning of suspension the average of current prices was 69.39 per cent of their 1951 highs, which meant that they could rise a little more than 15 per cent before reaching the so-called ‘trigger-point’. 1979H. Kissinger White House Years ix. 330, I had to learn an entire vocabulary of international trade, such as ‘export subsidy techniques’ as well as the arcane complexity of ‘trigger points’ (at which restraints would go into effect).
1978Business Week 23 Jan. 25/2 (heading) Steel *trigger-prices start sowing discord. Ibid. 26/3 Jack Meyer, assistant director of the Council on Wage & Price Stability, which devised the trigger-price system. 1981Economist 24 Jan. 88/1 The renewal of trigger prices last October coincided with a recovery in demand for, eg, tubes for the oil and gas industry, plates and girders for process plant and construction.
1892Greener Breech-Loader 187 Gentlemen..should state exactly what weight the *trigger pulls are desired.
1906Sub Target Rifle 13 For practice in *trigger-pulling it is of great advantage. 1924J. A. Thomson Sci. Old & New xix. 105 A current of air is necessary as the trigger-pulling stimulus.
1946Radar: Summary Rep. & Harp Project (U.S. Nat. Defense Comm., Div. 14) 144/2 *Trigger pulse, a pulse which starts a cycle of operations. 1956IRE Trans. Electronic Computers V. 124/1 For trigger pulses of a few mµsec duration there will be little or no interference between the trigger pulse and the change of voltage at the cathodes of the EFP-60's. 1981J. D. Lenk Handbk. Digital Electronics ii. 84 The circuit changes state only when both the input pulse and a clock pulse are present simultaneously. (The clock pulse is also known as a gate pulse or trigger pulse.)
1927J. Adams Errors in School 213 In external written examinations, where..the clever pupil..is led astray by expecting a question, and then treating one of the questions actually set as the one he expected. These ‘*trigger questions’, as they may be called, set off the candidate on the wrong track. 1973T. Pynchon Gravity's Rainbow (1975) i. 147 Hyperkinetically, waiting only the right trigger-question to start blithering 200 words a minute about their special, terrible endowments.
1892Photogr. Ann. II. 885 The exposure is made by pneumatic or *trigger release.
1952‘J. Wyndham’ in Galaxy Sci. Fiction July 72/1 He brought the cutter up, and pressed the *trigger-switch.
1894Electrician 15 June 188/1 Zehnder's *trigger tube. 1939H. J. Reich Theory & Applications of Electron Tubes vii. 208 A single pentode may also be used as a trigger tube. 1978R. V. Jones Most Secret War viii. 69 My first step was to take the electronic trigger tube down to my former colleagues at the Admiralty Research Laboratory, to get them to evaluate its performance.
1975Listener 17 July 74/1 Those of us who work in radio..rely on *trigger words, Pavlovian clichés which become a kind of bogus mental shorthand.
Hence ˈtriggerless a., without a trigger.
18..? Browning Miniature iv. in The Sibyl (Rugby Sch.) 1 Apr. 1893, Arquebuses and pistols triggerless.
▸ = drum trigger n. at drum n.1 Additions.
1986Making Music Apr. 6/3 It can store MIDI data, trigger routeing, and all the parameters of its own built-in delay and sequencer. Also out now is the TMI, a cheap trigger-to-MIDI interface. 1998Canad. Musician (Electronic ed.) 1 Dec. You can learn to program drum machines, learn to use sequencers and maybe even add in some triggers or electronic pads to your drum set up.
▪ II. trigger, n.2|ˈtrɪgə(r)|
[f. trig v.1 + -er1.]
1. A device or appliance to retard or stop the motion of a vehicle descending a slope. Now dial.
1591Percivall Sp. Dict., Estornija de carro, the trigger of a cart, sufflamen. 1611Cotgr., Enrayer vne rouë, to stay, or hold a wheele backe with a Trigger. Enrayoir.. a Trigger, the staffe thats put before a cart-wheele, to keepe it from ouer-throwing, or ouer-hastie going. 1631J. Anchoran Comenius' Gate Tongues 88 To the wheeles are put triggers [L. sufflamina, F. les enrayoirs]. 1648Hexham Dutch Dict., Radt-sperre.., that which is put into the Wheele, lest the Cart be overthrowne, or a Trigger [ed. 1678 triger]... Rede, ofte Wagen-span, the Trigger of a Wheele to stay it. a1661B. Holyday Juvenal (1673) 282 The souldier..has not his estate worn-out with such delay, like a waggon-wheell with the trigger that stops it. 1681W. Robertson Phraseol. Gen. 1246/2 A Trigger to stay a Cart wheel up hill, sufflamen. 1888Elworthy W. Som. Word-bk., Trigger, anything used to trig or block. ‘Here! thick gurt stone 'll do vor a trigger.’
fig.a1661B. Holyday Juvenal xvi. (1673) 279 Their means ne're, without fruit, Are gaul'd with the long trigger of a suit.
b. See quot.
1893Wilts. Gloss., Trigger, the rod let down to ‘trig up’ the shafts of a cart.
2. Ship-building. A support holding the dog-shore in position; also transf. the dog-shore itself.
1867in Smyth Sailor's Word-bk. 1877Knight Dict. Mech., Trigger... A piece of wood placed under a dog-shore to hold it up until the time for launching. 1896Strand Mag. XII. 324/2 This obstacle, known variously as the ‘trigger’, ‘dagger’, or ‘dog-shore’, is usually a short length of hard-wood interposed—in a sloping direction, and in such a way as to promptly yield to a smart downward blow—between fixed projections on the side of the standing ways and of the sliding ways. 1899Daily News 16 Jan. 7/3 The last blocks had been knocked away and the Oceanic was held in place only by a ‘trigger’ on each side. These huge triggers of cast steel..work in hydraulic pistons, and fit into slots of the sliding ways. 1900Engineering Mag. XIX. 681 From these triggers, dog shores, bearing only about one-quarter of an inch outside of the fulcrum, extend up against the keel.
▪ III. ˈtrigger, n.3
[f. trig v.2 or n.2 + -er1.]
a. See quot. 1843.
b. = trig n.2
1843Hardy in Proc. Berw. Nat. Club II. No. 11. 56 Two men, named triggers, must see that when the race for the succeeding cast of the bowl has concluded, the straw is exactly between the feet of the party whose turn it is to dismiss the bowl. 1891H. Johnston Kilmallie xix. II. 110 (Curling) The second, third, and fourth players, on each side, footed the trigger, and sent their stones hurtling along the as yet unpolished ice towards the goal.
▪ IV. trigger, v.|ˈtrɪgə(r)|
[f. trigger n.1]
1. trans. To act as a ‘trigger’ (sense 3) for, causing another event (esp. a chain reaction) to occur; to stimulate or ‘set off’; to activate, to bring about; to spark off (an idea, etc.). Also lit., to pull (depress, etc.) the trigger of (a gun or other device).
1930R. Campbell Adamastor 94 When life is triggered by a hair And stands upon the peak of death. 1938Sun (Baltimore) 18 Apr. 8/5 Denmark, whose people thrive on thrift, milk, bacon and eggs, and never need ‘triggering’ into activity by shot-in-the-arm spendings of borrowed billions. 1948Sat. Even. Post 20 Mar. 39/3 There is certainly no lack of evidence that the typical glaucoma patient has a nervous temperament and that emotional episodes will increase the pressure within the eyeball and even trigger off acute attacks. 1949Sun (Baltimore) 26 Sept. 4/1 The strike..was triggered by two rival AFL unions. 1950Ibid. 21 July 14/3 A system by which the powers are prepared but lie dormant until triggered into action by specific congressional action is the ideal. 1958W. J. H. Sprott Human Groups 163 May it not be that a crowd is ‘triggered off’ by people whose ‘thresholds of mob-involvement’..are low? 1958Spectator 19 Sept. 379/1 But as a space-veteran who once triggered a ray⁓gun with Flash Gordon, let me advise you to read on. 1958Listener 23 Oct. 648/2 Artists like Joan Mitchell, Al Leslie..have all been triggered by de Kooning's example. 1959Ibid. 18 June 1083/2 Sir Faithful Fortescue..whose loyalties were so finely triggered that he rode across from Parliament side to Royalist. 1968J. D. McCawley in Bach & Harms Universals in Linguistic Theory 168 Chomsky..in effect asserts that all lexical insertion takes place in the base component unless triggered by other transformations. 1972Amateur Photographer 12 Jan. 42/2 (caption) Recently there have been a number of flash meters on the market which, when placed at the subject position read out the correct f/stop to use when the flash is triggered. 1973C. Bonington Next Horizon xiii. 190 We tiptoed up the snow, hardly daring to talk, as if the resonance of our voices might trigger off an avalanche. 1977New Yorker 5 Sept. 80/3 Before I improvise, I just listen, and that triggers me. 1978S. Sheldon Bloodline xlii. 361 His eyes were fixed on the ribbon that the girl was wearing around her neck. It triggered a memory. 1978New York 3 Apr. 10/1 The Israeli invasion of Lebanon and the mass murder that triggered it have nearly obliterated from the public consciousness the killing of Egyptian editor Yousef el-Sebai. 1981Times 5 May 15/7 The fact that no danger signals were triggered during the growth of Norton Warburg has alarmed the City.
2. Electronics.
a. To initiate a change of state or a cycle of behaviour in (a device).
1937Proc. Cambr. Philos. Soc. XXXIII. 551 In order that it may be used in a scale-of-two counter, it is necessary to provide some simple means of triggering the circuit, that is to say changing from one stable state to the other. 1945Electronic Engin. XVII. 473 A differential circuit and pulse generator which triggers a thyratron. 1967Electronics 6 Mar. 160/1 A d-c flip-flop is triggered by the leading edge and clamped until the pulse is removed. 1974A. Van der Ziel Introd. Electronics xi. 262 A monostable multivibrator is a circuit that goes through a complete wave form when triggered.
b. intr. Of an electronic device: to change state in response to a momentarily applied signal.
1933P.O. Electr. Engineers' Jrnl. XXVI. 63/2 A tube is now manufactured capable of ‘triggering’ both ‘on’ and ‘off’. 1967[see Schmitt].
Hence ˈtriggered ppl. a., furnished with or activated by a trigger; ˈtriggering vbl. n. (freq. attrib.) and ppl. a.
1944Electronic Engin. XVI. 380 The harmonics generated in the circuit provide standard frequencies..for..high speed triggering etc. 1945Electronic Industries Sept. 226 Triggered spark gap, a fixed spark gap in which the discharge passes between two electrodes and is struck (started) by a subsidiary electrode, the trigger, to which low power pulses are applied at regular intervals from a pulse amplifier, thus closing the switch. 1958K. Amis I like it Here xii. 152 The sight of it at this moment must have had some triggering effect on Bowen's alimentary canal. 1962Listener 3 May 770/2 This would involve installing a ‘triggering’ device in the vehicle. 1967Ibid. 30 Nov. 694/1 The triggered responses which might deter me..no longer apply. 1972Language XLVIII. 299 Identity-of-reference deletions involve two coreferential NP's, a vanishing NP and a triggering NP. I propose that the rule of deletion..superimpose the vanishing NP over the triggering NP, keeping both NP nodes. 1977J. L. Harper Population Biol. Plants xviii. 520 Most of these annuals have a precisely triggered transition from the vegetative to reproductive phase depending on photo⁓period. 1977Savage & Rumbaugh in D. M. Rumbaugh Language Learning by Chimpanzee xvi. 289 Hockett..defined communication as an act by which one individual ‘triggered’ the behavior of another (‘triggering’ in this sense implies that the energy expended during the output of a communicative pattern is unrelated to the energy of the response). |