tenterhooks
IdiomsExample Sentences
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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
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
As a way to find joy, she said, in a time when news and world events have us all on tenterhooks.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 26, 2025
Turns out that Carmy’s obsessive determination to change the menu daily, and keep his staff on perpetual tenterhooks, was perceived as disruptive, but not in a good way.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 27, 2025
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
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
