trigger

«trigger» in Mova's school dictionary: the small lever on a gun or tool that you pull to make it… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun (a trigger, triggers); verb (trigger, triggers, triggered, triggering)

meaning for a pupil

1) A trigger is the small lever on a gun or tool that you pull to make it work. tree →

2) To trigger something means to make it start or happen. tree →

3) A trigger is something that causes a reaction, such as a thing that sets off an alarm, an allergy or a strong feeling. tree →

sense in the lessons

In science and safety it means cause: smoke triggers a smoke alarm; pollen can trigger asthma; a lot of rain can trigger a landslide. In everyday talk it is a cause of an action. With toys and tools, a trigger is the part you squeeze, as on a water pistol or spray bottle. Safety: never touch a real gun; tell an adult. Phrases: «pull the trigger», «trigger an alarm», «set off», «asthma triggers».

examples

• Burnt toast triggered the smoke alarm. tree →
• Dust can trigger my sister's asthma. tree →
• Squeeze the trigger on the spray bottle to water the plants. tree →
• The heavy rain triggered a flood. tree →
• The water pistol has a bright orange trigger. tree →
• Opening the door triggers the doorbell chime. tree →
• Cold air is one of his asthma triggers. tree →
• If you ever find a real gun, don't touch it and tell an adult. tree →
• It began to dig up another tree, when he pulled the trigger and--bang! tree →

note

Countable noun; regular verb: triggered, triggering (double g in all forms, single r at the end). «Trigger» as a verb is close to «cause» or «set off». A trigger starts something; it is not always the only cause.

In the corpora

• A Venus flytrap shuts in a fraction of a second when two trigger hairs inside the trap are touched within about 20 seconds.
• Animal allergies can trigger asthma attacks that make breathing very hard; a child with asthma uses his inhaler and tells an adult.
• Colds and other viral infections are the most common trigger of asthma attacks in children.
• Colds often trigger asthma, so a child with asthma and a cold keeps the reliever inhaler close and tells the coach.
• A grief trigger is a smell, song, place or object that suddenly brings back strong feelings of loss.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «trigger» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.