单词 | knee jerk |
释义 | knee jerk (once / 262652 pages) n You experience a knee jerk when your doctor taps your knee with a rubber mallet and your leg automatically kicks out. The idiom "a knee jerk reaction" means that you respond to something in an equally unthinking way. If you instinctively assume that someone who loves clowns wouldn't have much in common with you, that's a knee jerk, or automatic, reaction. This figurative meaning of knee jerk came from the physical reflex — which is called a "patellar reflex" by doctors, and which was discovered and named in the 1870's. WORD FAMILYknee jerk: knee jerks USAGE EXAMPLES“Patients need to be counseled about options and not just given willy nilly cancer drugs because that’s the knee jerk reaction,” he says. Time(Nov 09, 2016) As for Trump’s knee jerk response to terrorism — including the latest attacks in Brooklyn and New Jersey — Gates hit the mark. Seattle Times(Sep 22, 2016) I realize its much easier to form a knee jerk opinion, but its usually quite inaccurate. New York Times(Jul 09, 2016) n a reflex extension of the leg resulting from a sharp tap on the patellar tendon Syn|Hyper knee-jerk reflex, patellar reflex inborn reflex, innate reflex, instinctive reflex, physiological reaction, reflex, reflex action, reflex response, unconditioned reflex an automatic instinctive unlearned reaction to a stimulus |
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