fright wig

noun

A wig, usually worn for humorous or novelty effect, having voluminous, frizzy, long hair, suggesting the hair "standing on end" of a person who is extremely frightened or who has experienced a powerful electric shock.

Meanings

nounfright wig (plural fright wigs)

plural fright wigs · alternative fright-wig

  1. A wig, usually worn for humorous or novelty effect, having voluminous, frizzy, long hair, suggesting the hair "standing on end" of a person who is extremely frightened or who has experienced a powerful electric shock.

    Mr. Pinchot, wearing a long-haired fright wig, plays a guileless nut named Bobby McGee who has been struck by lightning and turned into a psychic.

    1989 November 3, Janet Maslin, “Film Review: Second Sight (1989)”, in New York Times, retrieved 06 Jun 2014
    2 more examples

    There's an awfulness about the voice of a blood-maddened club-swingin' mob; it lifts your scalp like a fright wig, particularly if you are the clubee.

    c. 1920, Rex Ellingwood Beach, A Bitter Root Billingsrbiter

    Six months before Andy Warhol died of a heart attack, he finished painting his last series of self-portraits. . . . In the images, set on an inky black background, his bald head is covered by his famously disconcerting "fright wig".

    2006 January 19, Arifa Akbar, “Warhol's final self-portraits reveal his darker side”, in The Independent, UK, retrieved 06 Jun 2014
Cite this entry
APA

fright wig. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/fright%20wig

MLA

“fright wig.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/fright%20wig. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “fright wig,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/fright%20wig.

Source: fright wig on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.