white-knuckle ride

English edit

Alternative forms edit

Noun edit

white-knuckle ride (plural white-knuckle rides)

  1. An extremely exciting ride at an amusement park, etc., where one's hands grip on so tightly that the knuckles appear white.
    • 2003, Colin McArthur, Brigadoon Braveheart and the Scots, IB Tauris, page 139:
      A newly-devised ‘white-knuckle’ ride in a funfair was named ‘the Braveheart ride’.
  2. (figuratively) Any extremely exciting or nerve-racking experience.
    • 2007, The Guardian, G2, 22 Jun., p. 3:
      They must be insane to think Judy Finnegan would retire from the daily white-knuckle ride that is live television with Richard Madeley.