Forms: α. 7–8 (9 dial.) tricker, (7 trycker); β. 8 triger, 7– trigger. [In form tricker, ad. Du. trekker a trigger, f. trekken to pull: see TREK. The form trigger occurs in 1660, but tricker remained the usual form down to c. 1750, and is still in dialect use from Scotland to the English Midlands.]
1. A movable catch or lever the pulling or pressing of which releases a detent or spring, and sets some force or mechanism in action, e.g., springs a trap.
1621. Markham, Prev. Hunger, 39. Hard by this loope [of the net] shall there be fastened … a little broad thin trycker, made sharpe and equall at both ends. Ibid., 40. The loope and the tricker.
1735. Phil. Trans., XXXIX. 84. That Tricker has a Pin.
1764. Museum Rust., III. lxv. 298. The triggers to throw the rake behind the roots.
1853. Sir H. Douglas, Milit. Bridges, vi. (ed. 3), 301. The ram was worked by hand-ropes (fig. 8) attached to the fall, which is a much quicker way than by the trigger and drop.
1885. C. G. W. Lock, Workshop Receipts, Ser. IV. 428/2. (Photography) A trigger is provided for releasing the shutter.
1913. E. T. Ruthven-Murray, Lett., 30 Dec. If the tram-car strikes anything on the track, the gate is pushed backwards and releases a ‘trigger’ (in this case a catch sustaining the tray) which allows the tray to fall so that it slides along on the road and scoops up the obstruction.
2. spec. A small steel catch which, on being ‘drawn,’ ‘pulled,’ or pressed by the finger, releases the hammer of a gun-lock. Hence to pull trigger, to fire a gun (at, on).
α. 1622. F. Markham, Bk. War, I. ix. 35. Let the Cocks and Trickers be nimble to goe and come.
1660. Boyle, New Exp. Phys. Mech., xiv. 89. We took a Pistol…, and … ty’d to the Tricker one end of a string. Ibid., 100. The Trigger was pull’d.
1759. Adam Smith, Mor. Sent., II. iii. (1781), 161. Each of them draws the tricker of a gun.
1828. Moir, Mansie Wauch, xii. It was an act of desperation to draw the tricker.
β. 1660. [see α].
1688. Capt. J. S., Art of War, 17. Your musquet being levelled breast high with your fingers upon the trigger.
1753. Hanway, Trav. (1762), II. I. xi. 58. We could not pull the trigers of their muskets.
1868. Rep. to Govt. U.S. Munitions War, 24. The trigger is pulled, h is drawn down and the spring, released, darts the needle through the guide into the cartridge, the blunt end of the needle sharply striking the fulminate and thus igniting the charge.
1888. ‘R. Boldrewood,’ Robbery under Arms, xlix. Not once or twice … you’ve pulled trigger on me.
b. A lever or snib in a cross-bow the pulling or pressing of which releases the string.
1681. Grew, Musæum, I. V. iii. 113. Just as when a Cross-Bow is let off by pulling down the Tricker.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. xvi. (Roxb.), 77/1. The string is … lett fly by a Tricker or button.
1846. Greener, Sc. Gunnery, 12. It remained thus until the trigger of the cross-bow suggested a contrivance to convey, with equal certainty and greater rapidity, the burning match to the pan.
3. In fig. and allusive uses. In the drawing of a trigger, in a moment, instantaneously. Quick on the trigger, quick to act in response to a suggestion, to take advantage of a situation, or the like.
1706. Farquhar, Recruit. Officer, I. i. This is the cap of honour, it dubs a man a gentleman in the drawing of a tricker.
1871. Tyndall, Fragm. Sc. (1879), II. ii. 12. Prayer is the trigger which liberates the Divine power.
1905. Daily Chron., 16 Feb., 4/5. A born musical leader, fertile in ideas, quick on the trigger.
4. attrib. and Comb., as trigger-catch, -detent, -guard (GUARD sb. 16 d), -jig (JIG sb. 6), -line, -plate, -pull, -pulling, -string, -touch; trigger area, Phys. and Path., a sensitive area of the body, irritation of which causes some special effect in another part (so trigger point); trigger-block, a piece of mechanism in a steam-engine, which automatically allows the steam-valve to close when a certain speed is attained; trigger finger, (a) the forefinger of the right hand, with which the trigger of a fire-arm is pulled; (b) Path. an affection of a finger (see quot. 1890); trigger-fish, a fish of the genus Balistes; so called because the large first ray of the dorsal fin is depressed by depression of the second, like the hammer of a gun-lock by the trigger; trigger-hair, Zool. a fine hair or filament at the mouth of a thread-cell in some cœlenterates, which operates like a trigger in emission of the stinging-hair; trigger-plant, a plant of the genus Candollea (formerly Stylidium), characterized by the two stamens being united with the style into a highly irritable column; trigger point, Phys. and Path. (cf. trigger area above). See also tricker-firelock, tricker-lock (TRICKER2).
1891. Cent. Dict., *Trigger area.
1900. Dorland, Med. Dict. (1913), Trigger area, an area stimulation or irritation of which may cause physiologic or pathologic changes in another area.
1893. D. K. Clark, Steam Engine, III. 58. A square *trigger-block … slides vertically through … the catch-block.
1861. Fairbairn, Iron, 123. The movement of the roller o causes the shoulder of the rod P to get under the point of the *trigger-catch u; the valve is by these means kept closed till the whole force of the blow is struck.
1868. Rep. to Govt. U.S. Munitions War, 24. The small lock-tube is drawn back, pulling with it … the needle-bolt, till the shoulder a is caught behind the trigger-catch.
1881. Greener, Gun, 470. The *trigger-comb arrangement is very ingenious, and is such that the barrels may be fired simultaneously or in quick succession, by adjusting a small screw.
1868. Rep. to Govt. U.S. Munitions War, 24. The needle-bolt, and with it the needle, is held back by the shoulder a, catching against the *trigger-detent h.
1829. W. H. Maxwell, Stories of Waterloo, I. 223. Removing Mr. Clinch’s *trigger-finger.
1890. Billings, Med. Dict., Trigger finger, sudden arrest of the movement of extension (or, less frequently, of flexion) of one of the fingers, until a special effort is made, when the movement is completed with a snap or jerk.
1906. Washington Post, 3 June, 11/4. You could notice that his trigger finger would get itchy. ‘Trigger finger’ ain’t quite appropriate in this case, maybe, because Bill didn’t have any trigger on his gun.
1882. Ogilvie, *Trigger-fish.
1884. Longm. Mag., March, 529. Trigger-fish and trunk-fish.
1908. Westm. Gaz., 3 Oct., 6/1. It penetrates into the body of the oyster in the expectation of its host being broken up and eaten by the trigger-fish.
1859. Musketry Instr., 38. To see that every man holds his rifle firmly with the left hand;… that the fingers of the right hand are behind the *trigger guard.
1868. Rep. to Govt. U.S. Munitions War, 51. The breech-block … works vertically in the shoe, being depressed or elevated by a hinged lever, fitting with a catch, over the trigger-guard.
1795. R. Dodd, Rep. Hartlepool, 16. The seaman, standing with the *trigger-line in his hand, at a sufficient distance from the gun’s recoil.
1884. Miller, Plant-n., *Trigger-plant, Stylidium graminifolium and other species.
1860. All Year Round, No. 71. 500. The stock is divided into … lock-side, head, small, trigger-guard, *trigger-plate, trigger [etc.].
1891. Cent. Dict., *Trigger point.
1900. in Dorland, Med. Dict. (1913).
1892. Greener, Breech-Loader, 187. Gentlemen … should state exactly what weight the *trigger pulls are desired.
1906. Sub Target Rifle, 13. For practice in *trigger-pulling it is of great advantage.
1892. Photogr. Ann., II. 885. The exposure is made by pneumatic or *trigger release.
Hence Triggerless a., without a trigger.
18[?]. ? Browning, Miniature, iv. (in The Sibyl (Rugby Sch.), 1 April, 1893). Arquebuses and pistols triggerless.
1874. New-York Daily Tribune, 30 Sept., 4/4. We may be pardoned, we hope, then, for suggesting to the warlike spirits who are just now engaged in electing themselves to Congress to put down a new rebellion that there is not so much as a triggerless musket in the field against them.
