How to Use fight-or-flight in a Sentence

fight-or-flight

adjective
Definition of fight-or-flightnext
  • 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
  • What’s more, the development has tipped her over to Red Feather’s side of the fight-or-flight choice.
    — Keith Phipps, Vulture, 10 Jan. 2025
  • 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 puts your body on alert, and, in turn, your body releases adrenaline, the fight-or-flight hormone.
    — Alysse Dalessandro, Health, 18 Dec. 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
  • Cold, on the other hand, can improve blood flow in some athletes by activating the fight-or-flight response.
    — Linda Carroll, NBC News, 23 Nov. 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
  • Fear aggression emerges when a dog's fight-or-flight instinct activates.
    — Daniel R. Depetris, Newsweek, 5 Dec. 2024
  • 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
  • This helps reduce the fight-or-flight response to stress and lowers cortisol levels, creating a feeling of safety and comfort.
    — Mark Travers, Forbes, 7 Jan. 2025
  • 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
  • Too much pressure can trigger a fight-or-flight sympathetic response.
    — Hayden Carpenter, Outside Online, 19 Nov. 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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