HAIR TRIGGER • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Hair trigger

... the thing among gentlemen who do not wish to be considered as attempting to attract notice. In cases where the gentleman with whom you are holding a joint debate already has the drop, his navy six having a hair trigger, and he being bound to shoot, anyway, this style of discussion is allowable, though apt to cause a coldness to spring up. As regards the number of guns which it is admissible to wear, great latitude is allowed, from one up to four being ...

— Roosevelt in the Bad Lands • Hermann Hagedorn

... was resting on a hair trigger, and, even in the tenseness of the moment, Hi Lang found himself keenly interested in what he saw—the Overland ...

— Grace Harlowe's Overland Riders on the Great American Desert • Jessie Graham Flower