as in thriller
something (as a close contest) that induces much suspense as to its outcome
a presidential election that was one of the great nail-biters of all time
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Recent Examples of nail-biter
Once the second half started, Marshfield tried to grind the game back into a nail-biter.
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Brendan Connelly, Boston Herald, 5 Apr. 2025
The blobfish, which lives mainly in waters off the southeastern coast of mainland Australia, the Australian island of Tasmania and New Zealand, emerged victorious with almost 1,300 out of more than 5,500 votes in this year’s nail-biter of a race.
—Peter Guo, NBC News, 19 Mar. 2025
House Democratic leaders are slated to hold a press conference as their counterparts in the Senate face down a nail-biter vote on government funding.
—The Hill Staff, The Hill, 14 Mar. 2025
The senior scored 33 points and 14 rebounds as SRV took down Oakland Tech 77-74 in an overtime nail-biter.
—Christian Babcock, The Mercury News, 10 Mar. 2025
See All Example Sentences for nail-biter
Recent Examples of Synonyms for nail-biter
thriller
Noun
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And the spy thriller with Cruise’s frequent partner Christopher McQuarrie in the director’s chair for the fourth time in the franchise was the top global earner with $127 million.—
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Until Dawn, a horror thriller based on the hit Sony Interactive Entertainment video game, is coming soon to digital streaming.—
Cite this Entry
“Nail-biter.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/nail-biter. Accessed 29 May. 2025.
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