fight or flight

[Ju]

May I know the meaning and usage of "fight or flight"? Is it an idiom?

Thanks / ju

[Soup]

Stay and fight (be brave) or run away (be a coward).

[Ju]

Originally Posted by Soup

Stay and fight (be brave) or run away (be a coward).

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May I try to make a sentence with 'fight or flight'?

"Now we are in great danger, it's a matter of life and death. Have you made up your mind whether you go for fight or flight?"

Thanks / ju

[thod00]

"Now we are in great danger, it's a matter of life and death. Have you made up your mind whether you go for fight or flight?"

Sounds an odd way to phrase it to me.

When presented with a danger signal, the body pumps adrenaline into the blood. This primes the muscles for action, creates the 'tunnel vision' and slowed time response in the brain, and shuts down secondary functions such as digestion of food. This is called the "fight or flight" response and was useful to our ancestors who frequently encountered hostile wild animals and people. In such a situation you only have two options. You either ready your knife to fight the animal, or you run away.

You don't really "make up your mind" on this. Those that stood around, taking time to make up their mind were the ones that got eaten. The system is built into our bodies so that we react without much thought. When being chased by a lion, it doesn't matter who is the fastest runner. What matters is who is the slowest.

[Ju]

Originally Posted by thod00

Sounds an odd way to phrase it to me.

When presented with a danger signal, the body pumps adrenaline into the blood. This primes the muscles for action, creates the 'tunnel vision' and slowed time response in the brain, and shuts down secondary functions such as digestion of food. This is called the "fight or flight" response and was useful to our ancestors who frequently encountered hostile wild animals and people. In such a situation you only have two options. You either ready your knife to fight the animal, or you run away.

You don't really "make up your mind" on this. Those that stood around, taking time to make up their mind were the ones that got eaten. The system is built into our bodies so that we react without much thought. When being chased by a lion, it doesn't matter who is the fastest runner. What matters is who is the slowest.

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Then, could I have an example with 'fight or flight' in a sentence?

Thanks / ju

[Tdol]

If you open the attachment to this post, you'll find dozens of examples taken from Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA)

It's hard to copy the results and put them in a post as they come in a table, so I saved them down as an html page.

[Charlie Bernstein]

The expression comes from the fight-or-flight response. An animal (or person) facing danger needs to decide quickly whether to fight or flee:

Fight-or-flight response - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Ju]

Originally Posted by Tdol

If you open the attachment to this post, you'll find dozens of examples taken from Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA)

It's hard to copy the results and put them in a post as they come in a table, so I saved them down as an html page.

Dear Tdol,

Thank you for your reply.

I clicked on the given link and was able to obtain example sentences of the phrase/word searched. However, I couldn't locate the icon for the meaning/defination of the word searched. Kindly advise.

Tks / ju