hair-raising

[ hair-rey-zing ]

/ ˈhɛərˌreɪ zɪŋ /

terrifying or horrifying: We had a hair-raising brush with death.

Origin of hair-raising

First recorded in 1895–1900

In a hair-raising series of events, he was able to get a ticket to the United States and get out of Uganda.

LGBT Asylum Seekers Need America More Than Ever |Gene Robinson |June 29, 2014 |DAILY BEAST
Very little excited Jay, not even his own hair-raising habit of reading while he drove.

The Strange and Mysterious Death of Mrs. Jerry Lee Lewis |Richard Ben Cramer |January 11, 2014 |DAILY BEAST
The explosive finale, when demonic fans run amok at a movie premiere, is hair-raising in its viciousness.

The 5 Best Novels on Hollywood |Jane Ciabattari |March 6, 2010 |DAILY BEAST
The yells which accompanied it were hair-raising as the shrieks from a band of maniacs.

Ben Blair |Will Lillibridge

We were through in safety, but it was the most hair-raising thirty seconds I ever experienced.

All about the Klondyke gold mines |J. Armoy Knox
Copple immediately topped my stories by more wonderful and hair-raising ones about his own adventures in northern Mexico.

Tales of lonely trails |Zane Grey
Isn't there any special form of hair-raising invocation that goes with this dangerous operation?

Visionaries |James Huneker
Long, hair-raising, and Spanish-scalping sentences rolled from his lips like crude petroleum from a five-inch pipe.

Bamboo Tales |Ira L. Reeves

hair-raising

inspiring horror; terrifying a hair-raising drop of 600 feet

hair-raiser, noun