on tenterhooks

Cultural  

1. To be kept on tenterhooks is to be held in a state of nervous apprehension: “We've been on tenterhooks since the election results started coming in.”

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on tenterhooks Idioms  

1. In a state of painful suspense, as in We were on tenterhooks all through the game, hoping against hope that our team would win. This expression alludes to hooks that formerly were used to hold newly woven cloth that was being stretched on a frame. Their name has long survived this method of manufacture. [Mid-1700s]

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A tenterhook was a hooked device used in the 1700s to secure newly woven cloth onto a frame.

Example Sentences

Is it why markets are rocking, why oil shipments are cut back from the Strait of Hormuz, why the world hangs on tenterhooks of suspense over what happens next?

From Slate • Mar. 4, 2026

So as not to keep you on tenterhooks, “CIA” gets you most of the way there by the end of the first hour.

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 23, 2026

Murase said she felt "immense joy" at her gold but admitted she had been on tenterhooks until her final run.

From Barron's • Feb. 9, 2026

The turn of the New Year came with a new series of The Traitors and to no surprise, plot twists are leaving viewers on tenterhooks.

From BBC • Jan. 6, 2026

For a while we were indignant because no one from the office came upstairs the entire morning; Mr. Kleiman left us on tenterhooks until eleven-thirty.

From "The Diary of a Young Girl" by Anne Frank