Frisson definitions and example sentences on Wordnik

“

"PA COMBINÉ, CH I More finely than any term in our tongue does the French word frisson express that faint shiver--as of a ghostly touch thrilling from hair to feet--which intense pleasure sometimes gives, and which is felt most often and most strongly in childhood, when the imagination is still so sensitive and so powerful that one's whole being trembles to the vibration of a fancy.

—Two Years in the French West Indies

View all »
Definitions (2)

American Heritage Dictionary (1)

noun A moment of intense excitement; a shudder: The story's ending arouses a frisson of terror.

Century Dictionary

GNU Webster's 1913

WordNet (1)

Elsewhere on the web

View all »
Examples (50)

Harvest Moon shivered at a fresh sensation; stringent but not unpleasant—not in that brief frisson, though her new meat told her that in excess it might become not just painful, but dangerous. — Dozois, Gardner ; Strahan, Jonathan - SSC - The New Space Opera (v1.0)
Maybe here was proof that she did truly love me with a consuming passion, a passion which, nonetheless, she had chosen to experience for the frisson of it -- a passion by which I must in turn fatally be captivated. — F ;SF - vol 089 issue 02 - August 1995
The cause of this frisson was their intention to offer a deputy's job to a former frontbencher, as a consolation for his not becoming a minister.
A more precise term for the feeling both the man Keller and the boy-man Pinch receive from their compulsive "news-making" activities is frisson, meaning "A moment of intense excitement; a shudder." — AMERICAN DIGEST
A frisson is more easily had than an orgasm and not nearly as messy. — AMERICAN DIGEST