in a state of anxiety or full of expectation. From clothmaking where finished cloth is stretched on a frame called a tenter, and attached to it by means of hooks (tenterhooks). —New Organizational Structure Approved 5.3.91
TENTERHOOKS, ON
ScnOEC
in a state of anxiety or full of expectation. From cloth-making where finished cloth is stretched on a frame called a tenter, and attached to it by means of hooks (tenterhooks). I won't keep you on tenterhooks and so forth.