raise eyebrows

present singular third person raises eyebrows · participle present raising eyebrows · participle past raised eyebrows · past raised eyebrows

1. idiomaticTo cause surprise.

   How did we lose the future? Gelernter's answer may raise some eyebrows. He believes that the United States realized the fair's predictions of a technological and economic utopia—and the country subsequently imploded with its own success.

   1995 May 21, Steven Levy, “The Unabomber and David Gelernter”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

   2 more examples

   Southgate's team selection raised eyebrows when he decided to leave the creative talents of Grealish and Phil Foden on the bench and showed huge faith in Arsenal teenager Bukayo Saka by starting him after his fine performance against the Czechs.

   2021 June 29, Phil McNulty, “England 2-0 Germany”, in BBC Sport

   Microsoft, the software, gaming, and cloud-computing giant, secured a contract to sell “mixed reality” goggles to the U.S. Army that could be worth nearly $22 billion over a decade. All of this raised eyebrows at the time. But then computers started generating eyebrows that raised themselves.

   2023 June 6, Ian Bogost, “The Age of Goggles Has Arrived”, in The Atlantic

2. idiomaticTo cause mild disapproval.

   The fact that a Chinese state-owned company was awarded the contract to build the structure also raised eyebrows.

   2022 July 27, Tamara Hardingham-Gill, “New Croatia bridge redraws map of Adriatic coast”, in CNN

3. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see raise, eyebrows.