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Of American-English origin, the colloquial adjective white-knuckle is used attributively to mean:
– (of air travel, of a motorcycle ride as a passenger, etc.): causing fear of such intensity that one’s knuckles whiten in an anxious grip;
– (of a person): experiencing such fear;
– of, or relating to, such fear.
The adjective white-knuckle occurs, for example, in an account of the ice-hockey game between the Bridgeport Islanders and the Hartford Wolf Pack that was played at Bridgeport on Sunday 12th April 2026—account by Kels Dayton, published in the Hartford Courant (Hartford, Connecticut, USA) of Tuesday 14th April 2026 [Sports section, page 5, column 2]:
After 25 years, some attendance issues and a white-knuckle winter for fans in anticipation of their move to Canada, the Bridgeport Islanders went out as winners.
These are, in chronological order, the earliest attributive uses of white-knuckle that I have found:
—Note: It seems that this adjective originally referred to air travel:
1-: From an interview of the U.S. comedian Bob Newhart (1929-2024), who was in Toronto for a live television show produced by Trans-Canada Telemeter—interview by Martin Schiff, published in The Globe and Mail (Toronto, Ontario, Canada) of Thursday 5th January 1961 [page 11, column 4]:
On Friday, Mr. Newhart will return to New York on what he and his plane-wary associates refer to as “the white-knuckle flight.”
2-: From a column by the U.S. humorist and journalist Herb Caen (1916-1997), published in the San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco, California, USA) of Monday 20th May 1963 [Magazine: page 27, column 1]—Sebastopol is a city in Sonoma County, California:
Cartoonist Charlie “Peanuts” Schulz of Sebastopol will be awarded an honorary degree next month at Anderson College in Anderson, Indiana—and he’ll drive there to get it. “I’ve had enough white knuckle flights,” he says. “I kept thinking, if anything happens to me, who’ll drive the kids to Little League?”
3-: From Confessions Of An Aerial Coward, by John Robinson, published in The Hamilton Spectator (Hamilton, Ontario, Canada) of Monday 3rd June 1963 [page 21, column 6]:
As a member of the white knuckle brigade, I have a medical question to ask. The white knuckle brigade, in case you don’t belong, is made up of those plane passengers who spend most of their flight time gripping the armrests so tightly their knuckles turn white.
My question is this. I have been landborne four hours and my knuckles are still anaemic. Is this ever fatal?
4-: From an article about ice hockey, by Pat Curran, published in The Gazette (Montreal, Quebec, Canada) of Thursday 26th September 1963 [page 28, column 6]—Gump Worsley (1929-2007) was a Canadian ice-hockey goaltender:
Although Gump Worsley travelled by air most of the time with the Rangers in recent years, every trip was a white-knuckle flight for the little netminder. Worsley, whose spunk in the nets without a mask is unquestionable, just can’t help his fear of the airways. But even at his worst, he’s still able to wise-crack.
On Monday’s return from Baltimore, a rough flight on which several players were ailing, the stewardess, passing out refreshments, asked Worsley if he wanted anything.
“Yes. I want to get off,” said Gump at 12,000 feet.
5-: From News From Whitehall 8, by Melba Truka, published in the Jefferson County Record (Hillsboro, Missouri, USA) of Thursday 7th November 1963 [page 16, column 6]:
Today, Thursday, Eva Kirkpatrick returns home from her flight to Oklahoma. She has been instructing the ladies of her in-law’s church about having a Christmas House Tour to raise money for the church. She left Monday afternoon on what she figures will be a “White Knuckle Flight”. She doesn’t figure on letting go of the arm rests even long enough to [eat?]. Next week we’ll hear about the longest three hours in Eva’s life on a jet.
6-: From an article about the Atlanta Crackers, by Al Sokol, published in The Telegram (Toronto, Ontario, Canada) of Monday 11th May 1964 [page 14, column 2]:
Consider the plight of Atlanta Crackers […].
Crackers opened the season at home by losing nine straight games, but that wasn’t good enough for a record. Baltimore dropped its first 10 in 1937. Then Crackers took a white-knuckle, seat-belt flight to Buffalo. On arrival the hotel had no rooms for them.
7-: From Fate and Flight 831, by Peter Sypnowich, Star Weekly staff writer, published in the Star Weekly (Toronto, Ontario, Canada) of Saturday 23rd May 1964 [page 14, column 1]:
In another seat Ernest Ellerston-Jones, a 40-year-old jazz enthusiast and father of four children, also was nervous. A Royal Australian air force pilot during the war, he flew almost every week as a Phillips sales manager, yet he never felt comfortable in a plane. His friends referred to him as a member of “the white knuckle brigade.”
8-: From the comic strip Mary Worth, by ‘Dale Allen’ (i.e., Dale Connor and Allen Saunders), published in the Anderson Sunday Herald (Anderson, Indiana, USA) of Sunday 31st May 1964 [page 22, column 2]:
Mary Worth has had a “white-knuckle flight” to Jennings, Ohio… but not because of air turbulence!
“Have you never flown before, Mrs. Worth?”
“Many times! What made me so tense today is that we are very late!”
9-: From a column by Robert McMorris, published in the Evening World-Herald (Omaha, Nebraska, USA) of Wednesday 22nd July 1964 [page 15, column 1]:
Bill Ramsey, public relations director at Duchesne College, says the most breath-taking moment in his recent vacation trip to California occurred at Sacred Heart School at Menlo Park, when he was given a tour of the campus in an electric golf cart, with a nun, Mother Maple, at the controls. Mother Maple is a Duchesne graduate. Bill was conveying messages from former associates when he was invited for the ride… “It was a white knuckle trip,” he said. “I had to hang on for my life”… At the conclusion of the tour, Mother Maple apologized because the cart was slow…
Mother Maple… A white-knuckle ride.
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