On tenterhooks
Suggest a CorrectionMeaning
In a state of nervous suspense or strained anticipation while waiting for an outcome.
Origin
A tenter was a frame on which newly made cloth was stretched to dry, and tenterhooks were the sharp hooks that held it taut. The literal words are medieval, while the figurative expression is established by the eighteenth century; Tobias Smollett wrote of the tenter-hooks of impatient uncertainty in 1748. The tension of stretched cloth supplied the metaphor. Tenderhooks is a modern mishearing caused by the unfamiliar word tenter and is not a historical variant.
Research Sources
Variants
- On tenters
Usage Examples
- Applicants were left on tenterhooks while the panel reconsidered its decision.
- We sat on tenterhooks as the final penalty was reviewed.
- The cliffhanger kept viewers on tenterhooks for an entire week.