IRRESISTIBLE IMPULSE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does irresistible impulse mean? 

• IRRESISTIBLE IMPULSE (noun)
  The noun IRRESISTIBLE IMPULSE has 1 sense:

1. an urge to do or say something that might be better left undone or unsaid

  Familiarity information: IRRESISTIBLE IMPULSE used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• IRRESISTIBLE IMPULSE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

An urge to do or say something that might be better left undone or unsaid

Classified under:

Nouns denoting goals

Synonyms:

compulsion; irresistible impulse

Context example:

he felt a compulsion to babble on about the accident

Hypernyms ("irresistible impulse" is a kind of...):

irrational impulse (a strong spontaneous and irrational motivation)

 Context examples 

And so, fresh from the soft southern world, these dogs, trotting down the gang-plank and out upon the Yukon shore had but to see White Fang to experience the irresistible impulse to rush upon him and destroy him.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

Moved by an irresistible impulse, Gatsby turned to Tom who had accepted the introduction as a stranger.

(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)