From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishgut reaction/feeling/instinctgut reaction/feeling/instinctinformalINSTINCT a reaction or feeling that you are sure is right, although you cannot give a reason for it He had a gut feeling that Sarah was lying. → gut
Examples from the Corpus
gut reaction/feeling/instinct• I have a gut feeling that the old partnerships between nature and culture have momentarily slipped out of our reach.• It was just a gut feeling, a sense of unease.• It is more a gut feeling-a visceral distrust of foreigners.• For the ordinary viewer, logical argument gives way to his or her gut reactions and personal experience in responding to people.• But my gut reaction was that, despite his reputation for being hot tempered, he was a friendly, likable child.• Personal reflections My gut reaction has always been against the placing of bolts, and I've never used them.• We worked on gut feeling and it was very difficult to control and manage all the development work because of the technology involved.• Male speaker There's gut feeling amongst the officers on the ground that it may be drugs related. 