Contextualizebeta

knee-jerky

adj

Etymology

From knee-jerk + -y.

  1. inherited from ġearcian — “to prepare, make ready, procure, furnish, supply”
  2. derived from ġearc
  3. derived from yerkid — “tightly pulled”
  4. inherited from yerk
  5. compounded as knee-jerk — “knee + jerk”
  6. suffixed as knee-jerky — “knee-jerk + y”

Definitions

  1. Exhibiting or characteristic of a rash or automatic response.

    • Could you please resolve to control your knee-jerky impulse to give every Tom, Dick, and Harry (Kupfer?) a standing ovation?
    • Despite possessing a libertarian streak that's widening over time, Buzz doesn't get all knee-jerky in opposing new government regulation, even when politicians start messing with the Internet.
    • Yet when Carol called, my immediate reaction — “How sad” or words to that effect — was so inappropriate, so knee-jerky, that I'm embarrassed to report it.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for knee-jerky. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA