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Tenterhook

For the album by musician Chris Mars, see Tenterhooks (album).
"Tenter" redirects here. For the specialised oven also known as a Tenter, see Stenter.
Tenter hook in an 1822 trade catalogue, published by H. Barns & Sons, of Birmingham, England
Tenterhooks on what may be the world's last remaining 18th-century tenter frames at Otterburn Mill, Northumberland

Tenterhooks or tenter hooks are hooked nails used with a device known as a tenter, a wooden frame, used since at least the 14th century in the process of making woolen cloth, over which wet cloth would be stretched to prevent shrinkage as it dries, but now superseded by the stenter in the textile manufacturing industry.

The phrase "on tenterhooks" has become a metaphor for nervous anticipation.

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