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

For PSG, the fans will be on tenterhooks until the very end in their bid for a top-eight finish.

From Barron's • Jan. 20, 2026

Back in the current Archers timeline, fans were left on tenterhooks by the cliffhanger broadcast on New Year's Eve, when a dramatic attack shook the village.

From BBC • Dec. 31, 2025

Yet Bloom and his wife had existed on tenterhooks with each other for years now.

From "The Milagro Beanfield War" by John Nichols