Definition

1. Verb (transitive):
   • To cause someone's hair to stand on end and to produce goosebumps, typically as a reaction to fear, cold, or intense emotion.
2. Verb (intransitive):
   • To experience one's own hair standing on end and the formation of goosebumps.

Usage

• Transitive Verb: The subject causes the reaction in an object.
• Intransitive Verb: The subject experiences the reaction themselves.

Examples

• Transitive Verb:
  • The eerie sound in the abandoned house was enough to horripilate even the bravest explorer.
  • Classic horror stories have the power to horripilate their readers.
• Intransitive Verb:
  • I horripilate whenever I hear that chilling melody.
  • She horripilated from the sudden, icy draft.

Advanced Usage

• Medical/Physiological Context: The term describes the pilomotor reflex, where arrector pili muscles contract.
  • The patient reported a tendency to horripilate in response to cold, a common autonomic response.
• Literary/Descriptive Context: Used for vivid description of a physical reaction to strong stimuli.
  • The revelation was so shocking it made him horripilate.

Variants and Related Words

• Horripilation (noun): The condition or instance of having goosebumps or one's hair standing on end.
  • A wave of horripilation swept over her as she entered the crypt.

Synonyms

• Transitive: Give someone goosebumps, make one's hair stand on end, give someone the creeps.
• Intransitive: Get goosebumps, have one's hair stand on end, shudder.

Notes

• This is a formal and somewhat rare word, often found in literary, medical, or descriptive contexts rather than everyday conversation.
• The reaction it describes is involuntary and is linked to the sympathetic nervous system.

Verb

1. cause (someone's) hair to stand on end and to have goosebumps
   • Hitchcock movies horripilate me
2. have one's hair stand on end and get goosebumps
   • I horripilate when I see violence on television