on tenterhooks | Idiomator

Meaning: (idiomatic)In astateof (great)apprehensionorsuspense;on pins and needles.Synonyms:in suspense,(obsolete)on tenters,(obsolete)on the tenters[1748, [Tobias Smollett], “I Enquire about My Uncle, and Understand He is Gone to Sea—[…]”, inThe Adventures of Roderick Random.[…], volume I, London:[…][William Strahan] for J[ohn]Osborn[…],→OCLC,page94:I made no reply, but left himupon the tenter-hooksof impatient uncertainty.]1920,John Galsworthy, “Dartie versus Dartie”, inIn Chancery(The Forsyte Saga; 2), London:William Heinemann,→OCLC, part II,page187:Having ordered a light repast, to the consternation of the waiter, they awaited its arrival together with that of Mr. Bellby, in silent reaction after the hour and a half's suspenseon the tenterhooksof publicity.1921September,John Galsworthy, “Caprice”, inTo Let, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.:Charles Scribner’s Sons,→OCLC, part I,page114:Why do you keep meon tenterhookslike this, putting me off and off?2023July 21,Philip Oltermann, “Escaped ‘lioness’ in Berlin was most likely a wild boar, mayor says”, inKatharine Viner, editor,The Guardian‎[1], London:Guardian News & Media,→ISSN,→OCLC, archived fromthe originalon8 November 2023:A 30-hour search for an escaped lioness that had residents on the southern fringes of Berlin shelter in their homes and the rest of the German capitalon tenterhookshas found that what was thought to be an exotic feline predator was most likely a common wild pig.

Examples:

EN: Don't leave me on tenterhooks.
ES: No me deje en ascuas.
EN: You stand there on tenterhooks for a minute or two.
ES: La dejaré en ascuas un rato.
EN: - Don't keep us on tenterhooks.
ES: - No nos tengas en vilo.
EN: It was distressing to see how he were on tenterhooks, waiting, while the people around us were grinning maliciously.
ES: Era penoso ver con qué impaciencia la esperaba... mientras la gente sonreía maliciosamente.
EN: It's exciting to be kept on tenterhooks, just for a bit.
ES: Es maravilloso aprender a conocerse.
EN: To keep France on tenterhooks. To keep France from turning to Spain.
ES: Para tener a Francia sobre ascuas e impedir que se alíe con España.
EN: Don't keep me on tenterhooks!
ES: ¡Me tienes en ascuas!
EN: - Speak up, don't keep me on tenterhooks!
ES: ¡Habla! ¿Y me lo dices ahora? ¡No me tengas en ascuas!
EN: Don't keep me on tenterhooks.
ES: No me tengas en ascuas.
EN: You just wanted to tease me, keep me on tenterhooks all night.
ES: - ¿Qué quieres decir? Solo querías burlarte de mí, tenerme en ascuas toda la noche.
EN: And there is something that has me on tenterhooks.
ES: Y hay algo que me tiene sobre áscuas.
EN: Keeping me on tenterhooks?
ES: ¿Qué pasa, me vas a torturar?
EN: - Don't keep us on tenterhooks, Father.
ES: - No sea reacio, Don Niccolo. - Puede confiar en nosotros.
EN: I knew it, knew it would end so all day on tenterhooks waiting and finally I fell asleep like a log.
ES: Lo sabía, sabía que terminaría así, todo el día con el alma en vilo esperando, y al final me quedo dormida como un tronco.
EN: You know we've been on tenterhooks all night?
ES: ¿Sabes que nos has tenido en vilo toda la noche?

Note: the examples for non latin scripts have a high likelihood of mistakes, we do not own any of this data and it is sourced from Wiktionary, the NLLB database and Opensubtitles. Please help us improve this by contributing correct examples. We will be working to fix this issue over time however it is a bigger issue due to the the difficulties in dealing with non latin scripts and grammatical structures(non-romantic/european languages have lower resources as well ).