Startling way of lifting the lock? (4-7)
I believe the answer is:
hair-raising
'startling' is the definition.
Both the answer and definition are adjectives. Perhaps you can see an association between them that I don't see?
'way of lifting the lock?' is the wordplay.
'way of' becomes 'raising' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'lifting' says to put letters next to each other.
'the lock?' becomes 'hair' (lock is a kind of hair).
'raising' after 'hair' is 'HAIR-RAISING'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for hair-raising that I've seen before include "Extremely alarming" , "Very frightening" , "Very scary" .)