Dictionary

knee-jerkish en · ADJ

Etymology

From knee-jerk + -ish.

Meanings

1. (informal) Exhibiting or characteristic of a rash or automatic response.
   • 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. 2001, Terry Osborne, Sightlines: The View of a Valley Through the Voice of Depression, University Press of New England, →ISBN, page 39:
   • 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. 2006, The Oriental Economist Report, volumes 74-75, page 91:
   • 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. 1990, Kurdistan Times, numbers 1-3, page 230:

Forms

Deriveds

knee-jerkishly

Synonyms

knee-jerky