white-knuckle ride

noun

An extremely exciting and nerve-racking ride at an amusement park, etc., where one's hands grip on so tightly that the knuckles appear white.

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Meanings

nounwhite-knuckle ride (plural white-knuckle rides)

plural white-knuckle rides · alternative white knuckle ride

  1. An extremely exciting and nerve-racking ride at an amusement park, etc., where one's hands grip on so tightly that the knuckles appear white.

    A newly-devised ‘white-knuckle’ ride in a funfair was named ‘the Braveheart ride’.

    2003, Colin McArthur, Brigadoon Braveheart and the Scots, IB Tauris, page 139
  2. A car ride or bike ride that is similarly nerve-racking, provoking fear of a crash.
  3. figurativelyAny extremely exciting or nerve-racking experience.

    They must be insane to think Judy Finnegan would retire from the daily white-knuckle ride that is live television with Richard Madeley.

    2007, The Guardian, G2, 22 Jun., p. 3
Cite this entry
APA

white-knuckle ride. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/white-knuckle%20ride

MLA

“white-knuckle ride.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/white-knuckle%20ride. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “white-knuckle ride,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/white-knuckle%20ride.

Source: white-knuckle ride on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.