curl someone's hair

present singular third person curls someone's hair · participle present curling someone's hair · participle past curled someone's hair · past curled someone's hair · alternative make someone's hair curl

1. idiomaticTo frighten, dismay, or excite someone thoroughly.

   "I'd have written him such a letter as would have curled his hair."

   1947, Harry Sylvester, Moon Gaffney (1976 edition), ISBN 780405093593, p. 116

   4 more examples

   "I'm not hankering for the dramatic in life, but we had a run last night that would curl your hair."

   1903, Andy Adams, chapter 7, in The Log of a Cowboy

   "Tell the son-of-a-gun for me that next time we meet I'll curl his hair right."

   1917, William MacLeod Raine, chapter 16, in The Sheriff's Son

   After I printed that letter the volume of mail I received from survivors of child sexual abuse curled my hair.

   2004 October 4, Abigail Van Buren, “Dear Abby”, in Beaver County Times, retrieved 10 Oct 2010

   Yanking open the door to the bathroom, I was greeted with a stink foul enough to curl my hair.

   2008, Jackie Kessler, Hell's Belles, →ISBN, page 317

2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see curl, someone's, hair.