literally kept on tenterhooks
Salcete injection scare keeps police on tenterhooks
The injection scare literally kept the Goa police on tenterhooks on Wednesday, with the men-in-uniform patrolling the schools in Margao and Cuncolim, to maintain a vigil over suspicious looking woman.
I had never heard this particular phrase, so I had to look it up:
kept on tenterhooks: based on the literal meaning of tenterhook (a hook that holds cloth that is stretched to dry), suggesting that someone’s emotions are tightly stretched like a piece of cloth held by tenterhooks
– Cambridge Dictionary of American Idioms
My apologies for the horrible graphic, but am I really expected to portray a tenterhook realistically? And if so, it would be much too gruesome, not to mention irresponsible, to show violent acts against police officers.
(Thanks, Mr. Cavin)
August 18th, 2006 at 1:03 pm
What a great link (Cambridge Dictionary of American Idioms). If only they offered the etymology of the phrase as well. I guess I’m doomed to remain in the dark about things like rocks and hard places.