to make hair stand up
- idiom
- Informal
:
erizar el vello
- The horror movie was so scary it made my hair stand up.
Examples
-
Hearing a wolf howl in the dark forest made my hair stand up.
-
The ghost story made hair stand up on my arms.
-
The loud crash behind me suddenly made my hair stand up.
-
That horror movie really made hair stand up!
-
Hearing a wolf howl in the dark forest made my hair stand up.
-
The loud crash behind me suddenly made my hair stand up.
-
The horror movie was so scary it made my hair stand up.
Synonyms
12
5.8
To cause a sudden feeling of fear or strong excitement that makes someone shiver
1
5.9
Make someone feel a sudden strong fear or excitement
1
6.0
Cause someone to feel a sudden strong fear or excitement
To make the hair on your skin stand up and give goosebumps
Antonyms
How Frightening
7
4.8
148
3.2
- Informal
540
1.0
133
1.9
131
3.7
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase literally combines 'make' + 'hair' + 'stand' + 'up' to evoke the image of hair rising, so learners can easily infer a physical sensation. However, the conventionalized extension to causing fear or intense surprise is a metaphorical shift that is not fully predictable from the parts alone, so a B1 learner may not automatically map the physical image to the idiomatic emotional meaning without prior exposure.
Etymology
Make hair stand up comes from the image of a person's hair actually rising to stand up when they are very scared or surprised, like when they get goosebumps. So it means to cause strong 'fear' or 'surprise'.