hair-raiser

[ hair-rey-zer ]

noun

1. a story, experience, etc., that is terrifying or thrilling.

Word History and Origins

Origin of hair-raiser¹

First recorded in 1895–1900

Example Sentences

“We Used to Live Here” isn’t your mother’s haunted house story; it’s a modern hair-raiser that pulses with uncertainty and uneasiness.

From Seattle Times

Here, complications from untreated mental illness drive the unreliable narrator trope for a swirly, tangled hair-raiser.

From Seattle Times

The Irish writer Tana French, no slouch at transfixing and scaring readers, may have spoken for us all when she said of this expert hair-raiser: “It creeped the holy bejasus out of me.”

From New York Times

They had, to a minute, the time of the start from Chicago, and hinted broadly that the schedule was a hair-raiser; something to make previous very fast records previous very slow records.

From Project Gutenberg

The play is certainly a moral hair-raiser, and the stuffing is knocked out of the decalogue at every turn.

From Project Gutenberg