knee-jerkish

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English

Etymology

From knee-jerk +‎ -ish.

Adjective

knee-jerkish (comparative more knee-jerkish, superlative most knee-jerkish)

  1. (informal) Exhibiting or characteristic of a rash or automatic response.
    • 1990, Kurdistan Times, numbers 1-3, page 230:
      Thus to judge their heart-felt reactions, some of which may look "knee-jerkish" at times, without taking into account their past bitter experiences, their present insecurities, or their dreams would be presumptuous, to say the least.
    • 2001, Terry Osborne, Sightlines: The View of a Valley Through the Voice of Depression, University Press of New England, →ISBN, page 39:
      It seemed a little knee-jerkish anyway, too obvious for the neighbor across the street to do, and a little too much like adolescent vandalism for my own conscience.
    • 2006, The Oriental Economist Report, volumes 74-75, page 91:
      Fukuda cares deeply about policy issues. He worries that Abe is a bit shallow on policy matters, and a bit knee-jerkish in his populism.
    • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:knee-jerkish.

Synonyms