• Hair-curling

    Alternative forms

    Full definition of hair-curling

    Adjective

    hair-curling

    1. Exciting, astonishing, frightening, or horrifying.
      • 1943, Arthur Otis, "Belden Pens a Hair-Curling Story of Disaster in Burma," Chicago Daily Tribune, 14 March, p. F10 (retrieved 9 Nov 2010)But, first and foremost, "Retreat with Stilwell" is a rip snorting, spine tingling, hair curling story, and as such it is quite likely to hold you.
      • 1960, Lewis Nichols, "In and Out of Books," New York Times, 7 Feb., p. BR8:Many of Mr. Dahl's stories are hair-curling tales of man's inhumanity to man, particularly woman's to man.
      • 1976, Eugene Patterson, "They're not saying ‘Jimmy Who?’," St. Petersburg Times, 18 July (retrieved 9 Nov 2010)The era of good feeling Carter has created in his party . . . could be a prelude to an activist presidency bent on shaking and changing the status quo with hair-curling audacity.
      • 2008, J. Gibson and E. Tadros, "A touch of nostalgia up for grabs," Sydney Morning Herald (Australia), 7 Oct. (retrieved 9 Nov 2010)If the walls . . . could talk, they would reveal some hair-curling secrets.

    Synonyms

    Related terms

    © Wiktionary