Tenterhook

Tenterhook

:"For the album by musician Chris Mars, see Tenterhooks (album)".

Tenterhooks were used as far back as the fourteenth century in the process of making woollen cloth. After the cloth had been woven it still contained oil from the fleece and some dirt. It was cleaned in a fulling mill and then had to be dried carefully as wool shrinks. To prevent this shrinkage, the wet cloth would be placed on a large wooden frame, a "tenter", and left to dry outside. The lengths of wet cloth were stretched on the tenter (from the Latin "tendere", to stretch) using hooks (nails driven through the wood) all around the perimeter of the frame to which the cloth's edges (selvages) were fixed so that as it dried the cloth would retain its shape and size. At one time it would have been common in manufacturing areas to see tenter-fields full of these frames.

By the mid-eighteenth century the phrase "on tenterhooks" came into use to mean being in a state of uneasiness, anxiety, or suspense, stretched like the cloth on the tenter.


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  • tenterhook — ► NOUN (in phrase on tenterhooks) ▪ in a state of agitated suspense. ORIGIN originally denoting a hook used to fasten cloth on a tenter (from Latin tendere to stretch ), a framework on which fabric was held taut during manufacture …   English terms dictionary

  • tenterhook — [ten′tər hook΄] n. any of the hooked nails that hold cloth stretched on a tenter on tenterhooks in suspense; filled with anxiety …   English World dictionary

  • tenterhook — noun Date: 15th century a sharp hooked nail used especially for fastening cloth on a tenter …   New Collegiate Dictionary

  • tenterhook — /ten teuhr hook /, n. 1. one of the hooks or bent nails that hold cloth stretched on a tenter. 2. on tenterhooks, in a state of uneasy suspense or painful anxiety: The movie keeps one on tenterhooks until the very last moment. [1470 80; TENTER +… …   Universalium

  • tenterhook — noun one of a series of hooks used to stretch cloth on a tenter …   Wiktionary

  • tenterhook — n. hook used to hold cloth onto a frame …   English contemporary dictionary

  • tenterhook — noun historical a hook used to fasten cloth on a tenter. Phrases on tenterhooks in a state of agitated suspense …   English new terms dictionary

  • tenterhook — n 1. bent nail, hook, hanger. 2. on tenterhooks apprehensive, uneasy, anxious, qualmish, worried, alarmed, concerned; nervous, Sl. uptight, queasy, jittery, skittish, jumpy; on edge, edgy, on a cliff edge, on a tightrope, waiting for the ax to… …   A Note on the Style of the synonym finder

  • tenterhook — ten•ter•hook [[t]ˈtɛn tərˌhʊk[/t]] n. tex one of the hooks or bent nails that hold cloth stretched on a tenter • on tenterhooks Etymology: 1470–80 …   From formal English to slang

  • tenterhook — /ˈtɛntəhʊk/ (say tentuhhook) noun 1. one of the hooks or bent nails which hold cloth stretched on a tenter. –phrase 2. on tenterhooks, in a state of painful suspense or anxiety …  

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