| 1. | a small projecting tongue in a firearm that, when pressed by the finger, actuates the mechanism that discharges the weapon. |
| 2. | a device, as a lever, the pulling or pressing of which releases a detent or spring. |
| 3. | anything, as an act or event, that serves as a stimulus and initiates or precipitates a reaction or series of reactions. |
| 4. | Slang. triggerman. |
| 5. | to initiate or precipitate (a chain of events, scientific reaction, psychological process, etc.): Their small protest triggered a mass demonstration. |
| 6. | to fire or explode (a gun, missile, etc.) by pulling a trigger or releasing a triggering device: He accidentally triggered his rifle. |
| 7. | to release a trigger. |
| 8. | to become active; activate. |
| 9. | quick on the trigger, Informal. quick to act or respond; impetuous; alert. |
,adjective, verb, trigged, trig⋅ging.| 1. | neat, trim, smart, or spruce. |
| 2. | in good physical condition; sound; well. |
| 3. | Chiefly British Dialect. to make trim, smart, etc. (often fol. by up or out). |

trigger
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trigger database
An action causing the automatic invocation of a procedure, for instance to preserve referential integrity. A triggers goes into effect when a user attempts to modify data with an insert, delete, or update command. A trigger can instruct the system to take any number of actions when a specified change is attempted. By preventing incorrect, unauthorized, or inconsistent changes to data, triggers help maintain the integrity of the database.
[Sybase SQL Server Release 10.0 Transact-SQL User's Guide].
(1995-02-22)
trigger
In addition to the idiom beginning with trigger, also see quick on the draw (trigger).