Idiom of the day :- On tenterhooks

Usage, examples and definition of the Idiom :-

Wait anxiously for something A : I heard that you went to a haunted house and took photos of ghost. B: Yes, I took them straight to the chemist and was on tenterhooks all week waiting for them to be developed. A : How exciting ! So now you have proof that ghosts exist. B : No. Unfortunately the chemist threw them away. He said that every one had a strange white shape on it and so he thought I wouldn’t want them. This expression comes from the traditional method of cloth-making. Part of the process involved drying the cloth by stretching it over a wooden frame and securing it with hooks which were called tenterhooks. The cloth was stretched as much as possible so that it was under very great tension. The expression used today compares the tension of the cloth to the tension felt when one is very anxious.