ORIGIN

On tenterhooks comes from one of the processes of making woollen cloth. After the cloth was woven and then cleaned, it had to be dried to keep it from shrinking. The wet cloth was stretched on wooden frames, called tenters.

The tenterhooks were the metal hooks used to fix the cloth to the frame. One can imagine that in a state of anxious suspense, one might feel like they are being stretched like a piece of cloth on a tenter.

Tenter comes from the Latin tendere, to stretch. The word has been in the language since the fourteenth century, and “on tenters” became a phrase soon after meaning painful anxiety.

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SYNONYMS

with butterflies in one’s stomach, jittery, twitchy, in a state, uptight, wired, in a stew, in a dither, all of a dither, in a sweat, in a flap, in a tizz/tizzy, het up, in a twitter, waiting for the axe to fall; strung up, windy, having kittens

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ANTONYMS

at ease, calm, chilled, collected, confident, cool, free and easy, happy-go-lucky, relaxed, sedate, self-assured, self-confident, self-controlled, serene, stress-free, sure, tranquil, unbothered, unworried,

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Practice OWAD in a conversation, say something like:

“I have been on TENTERHOOKS waiting for your call; how did the interview go?”

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P.S. A BIG THANKS to all “Friends-of-OWAD” who are helping me to keep the service going:)

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