Citations:knee-jerky

English citations of knee-jerky

Adjective: "(informal) exhibiting or characteristic of a rash or automatic response"

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• 1991, Gordon Rogoff, American Theatre, Volume 8, page 224:

  Could you please resolve to control your knee-jerky impulse to give every Tom, Dick, and Harry (Kupfer?) a standing ovation?

• 1992, Automotive Executive, Volume 64, page 89:

  He does not foresee any "knee-jerky cutbacks" and notes that Mazda predicts an increase in sales for his region.

• 1993, Business Week, Issues 3335-3343, page 172:

  Some of the Newton criticism, company executives argue, is knee-jerky and unjustified.

• 1995, Conrad C. Fink, Media Ethics, Allyn and Bacon (1995), →ISBN, page xiii:

  So, we must not get so knee-jerky about ethics that we forget the media's mission is to find and tell in the public's interest.

• 1996, Television Guide, Volume 44, unknown page:

  But Louie doesn't quite cut it. The problem is not its knee-jerky sitcom yuks (a doctor sees a man he knows leaving Louie's office in a dress and he's so shocked he pours coffee on his foot); silly gags are a chronic sitcom condition.

• 2003, Peter Schulte, Complex IT Project Management: 16 Steps to Success, CRC Press (2003), →ISBN, page 243:

  Some senior managers are more gracious in these conversations than others, but they all want you to stick to verbs that are positive and unadorned with adjectives and adverbs that make them suspicious and “knee-jerky.”

• 2003, Paul McNamara, "Bet on the Internet winning this one", Network World, Volume 20, Number 19, 12 May 2003, page 64:

  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.

• 2006, Carl H. Klaus, Letters to Kate: Life After Life, University of Iowa Press (2006), →ISBN, pages 125-126:

  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.

• 2009, Cris Enriquez, Filipinos Are Rich, Xulon Press (2009), →ISBN, page 15:

  It is too pedestrian, knee-jerky and reactionary.

• 2015, James E. Citrin, The Career Playbook: Essential Advice for Today's Aspiring Young Professional, Crown Business (2015), →ISBN, unnumbered page:

  “They are less concerned with the current predicament. They are less emotional, less knee-jerky, and are always thinking about longer-term problem solving. Put another way, chess players don't quit over breakfast or lunch.”