hair-raiser

noun

hair-rais·​er ˈher-ˌrā-zər 

: thriller

Synonyms of hair-raiser

• thriller

Examples of hair-raiser in a Sentence

since they had been dating for five years, her answer to his proposal wasn't exactly a hair-raiser

Recent Examples on the Web

For pregame prep, there’s a new documentary about the 2007 hair-raiser. — Steven Louis Goldstein, New York Times, 9 Sep. 2026

In Hokum, the Cork native transports viewers to Ireland’s remote and possibly haunted Bilberry Woods Hotel alongside prickly American author Ohm Baumann (Adam Scott) for a good ol' fashioned hair-raiser of a ghost story. — Megan McCluskey, Time, 4 May 2026

The streamer has a deep bench of horror films from all eras of cinema among its offerings, from influential classics like Nosferatu (1922) to newer hair-raisers like Possessor (2020), and all kinds of thrillers and chillers in between. — Kevin Jacobsen, Entertainment Weekly, 31 Jan. 2026

And the Halloween-eve hair-raiser adds a cackling skeleton to a horror arcade of ghoulish news for EVs. — Shawn Tully, Fortune, 30 Oct. 2023

Word History

First Known Use

1897, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for hair-raiser

• appraiser
• fundraiser
• blazer
• gazer
• glazer
• kayser
• laser
• lazar
• maser
• mazer
• phasor
• raiser