Crossword clues for knee-jerk
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
patellar reflex, neurological phenomenon discovered and named 1876; the figurative use appeared soon after the phrase was coined.
Wiktionary
a. automatic, spontaneous, easily predictable n. A sudden reflexive movement of the leg below the knee, as a reaction to a tap to the tendon just below the patella (kneecap).
Usage examples of "knee-jerk".
Cummings boy, who was also under a knee-jerk sentence of death already, according to Medinan representatives.
She'd actually had the gall to tell him his rejection of the Weapons Development Board's new proposals was just as knee-jerk and automatic as the autoresponse pattern in favor of any new proposal which he'd always loathed in the jeune ecole.
She’d actually had the gall to tell him his rejection of the Weapons Development Board’s new proposals was just as knee-jerk and automatic as the autoresponse pattern in favor of any new proposal which he’d always loathed in the jeune ecole.
I was now ready to admit that there had been something more than a lingering knee-jerk reflex of the affection response operating in me.
This is basically a reflex arc, like the knee-jerk, although involving rather more complex circuitry.
He was closest in age to her—the one Skelly kid who didn't have that infamous knee-jerk temper and that smart-mouthed impatience.
A small part of his mind kept telling him that it was all chemical softeners and bullshit, that what the computer had been saying to him was knee-jerk nonsense, but he couldn't help himself.