hair-raising story—
1. a thrilling and scary story:
- I remember her telling the hair-raising story of how she was alone in her little hut somewhere in the jungles of Africa.
2. a story that shocks people:
- Naylor tells some hair-raising stories of how politicians have often been the chief culprits, stashing away foreign aid funds in numbered accounts.
hairy story —(coll.) a story which tells about an arduous or hazardous past experience:
- Dick used to tell me hairy stories about those early days working in Antarctica.