on tenterhooks
Meaning: In anxious suspense.
Language: English
Literally: (Already vivid in English)
Example: “We were on tenterhooks until the results came through.”
Category: Daily Life
Origin: A tenter was a wooden frame on which newly woven cloth was stretched tight to dry, held by hooks along its edges. Being on tenterhooks is being stretched the same way. The phrase is recorded from the 18th century.
Equivalents in other languages
- Italian: sulle spine — literally: on thorns
More idioms — Daily Life
- on the ropes — Close to defeat or collapse.
- move with the times — To keep up with change instead of clinging to old ways.
- beat the drum for something — To promote something loudly and publicly.
- any old how — Carelessly, with no attention to doing it properly.
- without a fight — With no resistance at all.
- pave the way — To prepare the ground so that something can happen later.
More English idioms
- start off on the wrong foot — To begin something badly.
- take one's breath away — To astonish someone with beauty or surprise.
- go away empty-handed — To get nothing at all.
- hit rock bottom — To reach the lowest possible point.
- work one's fingers to the bone — To work extremely hard.
- watch one's back — To stay alert to hidden threats.