as in thriller
something (as a close contest) that induces much suspense as to its outcome
since they had been dating for five years, her answer to his proposal wasn't exactly a hair-raiser
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Recent Examples of hair-raiser
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
Shawn Tully, Fortune, 30 Oct. 2023
Recent Examples of Synonyms for hair-raiser
thriller
Noun
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Its trailer, viewed by tens of thousands on YouTube (65,000 and counting), has only fueled more interest in the sci-fi thriller series, which already picked up an award at Italy’s Global Series Festival last June.—
Anna Marie de la Fuente,
Variety,
16 Aug. 2025
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Here’s a man as comfortable working in documentaries (4 Little Girls), filmed theater (Passing Strange), crime thrillers (Inside Man), and outlandish satire (Bamboozled).—
Tim Grierson,
Vulture,
16 Aug. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Hair-raiser.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/hair-raiser. Accessed 22 Aug. 2025.
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