itchy trigger finger

plural itchy trigger fingers

1. The trigger finger of a person eager to fire their weapon or likely to do so unexpectedly.

   As jittery as everyone was, there were bound to be some itchy trigger fingers, American and Kuwaiti.

   2006, Seth W. B. Folsom, The Highway War, unnumbered page

   3 more examples

   Travel at night was forbidden and frankly, none of us seemed upset about this as we all knew how the U.S. Army troops had itchy trigger fingers.

   2009, Steven D. Orr, The Perennial Wanderer, page 379

   He, and many others who had “itchy trigger fingers” and who wanted America to get in bed with war against communist Cuba and the Soviet Union, felt betrayed because JFK did not provide direct air power or support, leaving the right-winged exiles to be crushed by the Cuban army.

   2010, Drew Ryan Maras, Open Your Eyes: To 2012 and Beyond, page 219

   As the police made their way to the upper levels, they did so with guns drawn and itchy trigger fingers at the ready.

   2011, Thomas Thorn, Ugly Stories, page 242

2. idiomaticThe metaphorical trigger finger of a person with a tendency or readiness to act in haste or without consideration; a tendency to so act.

   Given any remote chance to gun down an effective spokesman for conservative economics as a secret fascist and torturer, even Nobel laureates can, we see, succumb to an itchy trigger finger.

   3 more examples

   They all have an itchy trigger finger when it comes to advertising.

   2002, Matthew W. Ragas, Bolivar J. Bueno, The Power of Cult Branding, page xii

   Under these kinds of circumstances, players with significant exposure, tight stops, and itchy trigger fingers can end up overreacting to what is essentially noise.

   2004, Michael J. Panzner, The New Laws of the Stock Market Jungle, unnumbered page

   Look at Afghanistan and Iraq, it's plain to see that our current President has an itchy trigger finger.

   2008, Casey Sherman, Black Dragon, page 168