white-knuckle

[ hwahyt-nuhk-uhl, wahyt- ]

adjective

, Informal.

1. causing fear, apprehension, or panic:

   The plane made a white-knuckle approach to the fogged-in airport.

2. experiencing fear, terror, or apprehension:

   The white-knuckle crowd loved that director's newest horror movie.

white-knuckle

adjective

1. causing or experiencing fear or anxiety

   a white-knuckle ride

Example Sentences

It’s kind of a white-knuckle ride.

From Los Angeles Times

So while “Juror #2” is no white-knuckle movie, it is a slow-squeeze conscience trap, as well as a keen prism through which to stress-test our own ethics.

From Los Angeles Times

Compared with Pacino’s outraged and outrageous Cohn, spraying a vulgarian’s spittle across Nichols’ magisterial “Angels,” Strong’s performance is a model of white-knuckle control, swaggering when Cohn exerts his power, wilting when he can’t.

From Los Angeles Times

It was a thrilling, exhausting, white-knuckle ride.

From BBC

Deaver and Maldonado have crafted a white-knuckle ride, although its forward momentum is undercut at times by overexplaining in clumps of exposition rather than allowing the reader to catch up more organically.

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• close call
• shocker