Word.ws English Dictionary

pulled the trigger

pulled the trigger is the simple past and past participle of pull the trigger.

Meaning of pull the trigger

Verb

pull the trigger (third-person singular simple present pulls the trigger, present participle pulling the trigger, simple past and past participle pulled the trigger)

  1. To fire a gun.
  2. (idiomatic) To commit to a course of action.
    • Most surprisingly of all, the mad queen Cersei is challenged to execute both of her brothers at different moments, and she can’t bear to pull the trigger either time.2017 August 27, Brandon Nowalk, “Game Of Thrones slows down for the longest, and best, episode of the season (newbies)”, in The Onion AV Club
  3. (idiomatic, intransitive) To shoot, kick the ball in hope of scoring a goal.
    • The Baggies almost hit back instantly when Graham Dorrans broke from midfield and pulled the trigger from 15 yards but Paul Robinson did superbly to tip the Scot's drive around the post.2010 December 28, Kevin Darlin, “West Brom 1 - 3 Blackburn”, in BBC
  4. (informal) To hit a very powerful shot.

Questions about pulled the trigger

What is pulled the trigger the simple past and past participle of?
Pulled the trigger is the simple past and past participle of pull the trigger.

Words near pulled the trigger in the dictionary

  1. pulled the plug
  2. pulled the rug
  3. pulled the rug out from under
  4. pulled the shutters down
  5. pulled the string
  6. pulled the trigger
  7. pulled the wires
  8. pulled the wool over someone's eyes
  9. pulled through
  10. pulled time
  11. pulled to publish

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pulled the trigger (page history and authors); pull the trigger (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “pulled the trigger.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/pulled_the_trigger. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.