nerve-rending

He exposes over and over again, with nerve-rending subtlety, how intoxicating to the human spirit is the mad lust of self-immolation, of self-destruction.

Visions and Revisions A Book of Literary Devotions John Cowper Powys 1917

But without the full devotion of the individual, without the coöperation of his _esprit_, the army would be a dead machine, especially in this nerve-rending endurance contest of the trenches.

The World Decision Robert Herrick 1903

Reading aloud had become to her a second nature, and whether she had liked it or not at first, she had learned to do it with perfect ease and indifference, neither letting her voice drag languidly and hesitatingly when she was tired, nor falling into that nerve-rending fault of readers who vainly endeavour to personate the characters in dialogue, and to give impressiveness in the descriptive portions.

Doctor Claudius, A True Story 1881

One of the greatest of all suspense films, The Wages of Fear is Clouzot's nerve-rending account of four drivers trying to escape a horrible little South American backwater by driving two truckloads of dynamite over deadly mountain roads.

unknown title 2009

One of the greatest of all suspense films, this is Clouzot's nerve-rending account of four drivers trying to escape a horrible little South American backwater by driving two truckloads of dynamite over deadly mountain roads.

Movie City News 2009