Word.ws English Dictionary

on the tenterhooks

on the tenterhooks is the alternative form of on tenterhooks.

Meaning of on tenterhooks

Prepositional phrase

  1. (idiomatic) In a state of (great) apprehension or suspense; on pins and needles; on the rack.
    • I made no reply, but left him upon the tenter-hooks of impatient uncertainty.[1748, [Tobias Smollett], “I Enquire about My Uncle, and Understand He is Gone to Sea— […]”, in The Adventures of Roderick Random. […], volume I, London: […] [William Strahan] for J[ohn] Osborn […]...

Questions about on the tenterhooks

What is on the tenterhooks the alternative form of?
On the tenterhooks is the alternative form of on tenterhooks.

Words near on the tenterhooks in the dictionary

  1. on the tack
  2. on the take
  3. on the tap
  4. on the tapis
  5. on the telephone
  6. on the tenterhooks
  7. on the tenters
  8. on the tiles
  9. on the tip of one's tongue
  10. on the tools
  11. on the toss of a coin

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: on the tenterhooks (page history and authors); on tenterhooks (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “on the tenterhooks.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/on_the_tenterhooks. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.