cliffhanger
or cliff-hang·er
[klif-hang-er]
- a melodramatic or adventure serial in which each installment ends in suspense in order to interest the reader or viewer in the next installment.
- a single installment in such a serial.
- a suspenseful movie, novel, etc.
- the suspenseful ending itself.
- a situation or contest of which the outcome is suspensefully uncertain up to the very last moment: The game was a cliffhanger, but our team finally won.
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Origin of cliffhanger
An Americanism dating back to 1935–40
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for cliffhanger
Contemporary Examples
Why not finish hard on a cliffhanger and the next one just jump straight back in?
And, maddeningly, “A” ended on a cliffhanger, just as a potentially explosive confrontation was about to go down.
The best thing to happen to it was the aborting of the third season, which effectively ended the series in a cliffhanger.
The cliffhanger on the first one was “somebody whacked the erasers.”
The Crossword Puzzle Turns 100: The ‘King of Crossword’ on Its Strange HistoryKevin Fallon
December 21, 2013
I did it on two puzzles where the first one was a cliffhanger and the next week was the interrogation of the kids.
The Crossword Puzzle Turns 100: The ‘King of Crossword’ on Its Strange HistoryKevin Fallon
December 21, 2013
cliffhanger
- a situation of imminent disaster usually occurring at the end of each episode of a serialized film
- the serialized film itself
- a situation that is dramatic or uncertain
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Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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