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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Kansas survived a Big 12 thriller 104-100.—
Shreyas Laddha,
Kansas City Star,
7 Jan. 2026
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The platform features content across multiple genres including romance, thriller, variety and fantasy, all subtitled in local languages.—
Naman Ramachandran,
Variety,
7 Jan. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Hair-raiser.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/hair-raiser. Accessed 8 Jan. 2026.
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