How to Use fight-or-flight in a Sentence

fight-or-flight

adjective
  • When you’re stressed, your body gets ready to enter fight-or-flight mode.
    Addison Aloian, Women's Health, 21 Apr. 2023
  • Snapped out of modern-day fight-or-flight mode, I was primed for smoother sleep despite the jet lag.
    Juliet Kinsman, Condé Nast Traveler, 13 Mar. 2024
  • The panic attack fight-or-flight response is well-known to me.
    Alice Bradley, Health, 9 Mar. 2023
  • If fight-or-flight fails, the instinct to feign death kicks in as an attempt to forestall the danger.
    Rachel Nuwer, Scientific American, 14 May 2024
  • Long-term stress can mean our fight-or-flight response does its thing on a hair trigger.
    Eleanor Morgan, refinery29.com, 12 Apr. 2023
  • Don’t neglect self-care: When stress takes over, your brain shifts into fight-or-flight mode.
    Noma Nazish, Forbes, 30 Sep. 2024
  • This is the hormone that triggers the fight-or-flight response which helps the body better cope with real or perceived threats.
    James Myhre & Dennis Sifris, Md, Verywell Health, 3 Sep. 2024
  • Remember: Your body was just in fight-or-flight mode and stress hormones may still be surging through your veins.
    Julia Ries, SELF, 18 Sep. 2024
  • Stress can also slow digestion because when you're stressed, the body's fight-or-flight response kicks in.
    Daryl Austin, USA TODAY, 9 Aug. 2023
  • Those alarms trigger the grownup’s fight-or-flight response and raise the odds that adult and child will enter a co-escalation cycle of doom.
    Jessica Winter, The New Yorker, 25 Jan. 2024
  • Stress triggers a physical response known as the fight-or-flight response.
    Anna Giorgi, Verywell Health, 25 Oct. 2024
  • Even normal stuff, like a bus backfiring or a balloon popping, can send her into fight-or-flight mode.
    Amelia Harnish, Women's Health, 5 June 2023
  • The sympathetic nervous system is part of your body's fight-or-flight response.
    Cathy Cassata, Health, 29 July 2023
  • Since fight-or-flight mode can cause your thoughts to race, grounding techniques can help your mind and body connect with the present moment and reset, Dr. Albers-Bowling says.
    Maggie O'Neill, SELF, 31 Mar. 2023
  • When this occurs, your body triggers a fight-or-flight response that involves a boost of adrenaline and an increase in heart rate and blood pressure.
    Anna Giorgi, Verywell Health, 29 July 2024
  • This can trigger the sympathetic nervous system and send your body into fight-or-flight mode.
    Maggie O'Neill, SELF, 31 Mar. 2023
  • Your brain is hard-wired to zoom in on violence, mayhem and conflict for fight-or-flight purposes because those acts are threats to survival.
    Bryan Robinson, Forbes, 1 Nov. 2024
  • The technique involves tensing and releasing different body parts, which helps quell stress by forcing your body out of fight-or-flight mode.
    Alice Oglethorpe, SELF, 10 May 2024
  • Could this be a pheochromocytoma — a usually benign tumor that causes the adrenal glands to produce too much of the fight-or-flight hormones?
    Lisa Sanders, M.d., New York Times, 9 Mar. 2023
  • That particular sequence provides a good early test of your fight-or-flight instincts.
    Justin Chang, Los Angeles Times, 27 Apr. 2023
  • The booming sounds can be perceived as a threat and trigger dogs' fight-or-flight response, according to Veterinary Specialists of the Rockies.
    Aliza Chasan, CBS News, 3 July 2023
  • Naturally, some people will go to great lengths to avoid triggering such fight-or-flight (or freeze) responses.
    Alex Orlando, Discover Magazine, 31 Oct. 2023
  • The harmonies of the forest resonate deeply within us, soothing our fight-or-flight instincts, melting away stress and guiding us toward serenity.
    Gen Cleary, Rolling Stone, 11 Oct. 2023
  • His body was still in fight-or-flight mode, overwhelmed by the incomprehensible explosion.
    The Arizona Republic, 14 Jan. 2024
  • Phobias exists on the extreme tail-end of fear, manifesting as absolute, fight-or-flight horror.
    Manasee Wagh, Popular Mechanics, 2 Mar. 2023
  • For some budding musicians (and even old pros), the very sight of sheet music can elicit a fight-or-flight response, bringing up painful memories of strict piano teachers and high-pressure recitals.
    Tristan Geary, New York Times, 12 Mar. 2024
  • Things escalate when a starving Samuel and Nolan are confronted with a tense fight-or-flight catalyst involving the family dog.
    Courtney Howard, Variety, 17 Sep. 2024
  • Hoping that helped explain some of Camilleri's symptoms, Verma prescribed some heart medicines that dilate blood vessels and others to dampen that fight-or-flight response.
    Lauran Neergaard The Associated Pres, Arkansas Online, 17 Aug. 2023
  • But with their legs fried, their cortisol levels soaring, and their nervous systems cranked in fight-or-flight mode, would the riders actually be able to sleep properly?
    Alex Hutchinson, Outside Online, 3 Oct. 2024
  • Booming sounds can be trigger dogs' fight-or-flight response, according to Veterinary Specialists of the Rockies.
    Aliza Chasan, CBS News, 4 July 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'fight-or-flight.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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