| 释义 |
tenterhook|ˈtɛntəhʊk|
Forms: see tenter n.1; also with hyphen, and 5 tayntyr-, tentyr-, 6 tentur-, 7 tentry-.
[f. tenter n.1 + hook n.1]
1. One of the hooks or bent nails set in a close row along the upper and lower bar of a tenter, by which the edges of the cloth are firmly held; a hooked or right-angled nail or spike; dial. a metal hook upon which anything is hung.
1480Wardr. Acc. Edw. IV (1830) 139 Tentourhokes, cc. 1492–3Rec. St. Mary at Hill 186 Item, for tayntyrhokes and ffor wachyng of the sepulture, xij d. a1518Skelton Magnyf. 1002 Her naylys sharpe as tenter hokys! 1579in Feuillerat Revels Q. Eliz. (1908) 324 Tainter Hookes at viiid the c. a1683Sidney Disc. Govt. iii. xxxii. (1704) 369 The King of Marocco may stab his Subjects, throw them to the Lions, or hang them upon tenterhooks. 1688R. Holme Armoury iii. 348/1 The Tentry Hook is a Nail with a crooked Head, yet sharp pointed, that it may strike into any thing hung upon it. 1777Howard Prisons Eng. (1780) 404 The partition between this and the garden..strong palisades with tenter-hooks. 1825Waterton Wand. S. Amer. iii. iii. 254 On examining his teeth I found that they were all bent like tenter-hooks, pointing down his throat. 1888Sheffield Gloss., Tenter-hooks, the hooks upon which the valances of a bed are hung. 1889N.W. Linc. Gloss. (ed. 2), Tenter-hooks, strong iron hooks put in ceilings and..joists.., on which bacon and other such things are hung.
b. transf. = tenter n.1 2 b.
1665Hooke Microgr. xxxv. 164 It was arm'd likewise with the like Tenterhooks or claws with those of the sheath. 1713Derham Phys.-Theol. To Rdr. 6 The Beards (or Tenter-hooks [of a bee's sting] as Dr. Hook calls them) lie only on one side of each Spear, not all round them. 1816Kirby & Sp. Entomol. xxiii. (1818) II. 323 These tenter-hooks in the suckers of flies..are mere fancies.
2. fig. That on which something is stretched or strained; something that causes suffering or painful suspense. Cf. tenter n.1 3.
1532More Confut. Barnes viii. Wks. 797/1 The churche..is stretched out in the stretcher or tenter hookes of the crosse, as a churche well washed and cleansed. 1601Chester Love's Mart. (1878) 138 Ract on the tenter⁓hookes of foule disgrace. 1823Byron Juan xiv. xcvii, [It] keeps the atrocious reader in suspense; The surest way for ladies and for books To bait their tender or their tenter-hooks.
b. esp. in phrases to put, set, strain, stretch on the tenterhooks: to strain, distort the sense of (words) (? obs.); to strain (conscience, truth, authority, credit, etc.) beyond the proper, normal, or natural extent, limit, or scope; to put a strain on (a faculty, power, or capacity). Now rare.
1583Stubbes Anat. Abus. ii. (1882) 29 He racketh it, straineth it, and as it were so setteth it on the tenter hookes. 1603H. Crosse Vertues Commw. (1878) 58 By setting the conscience on the tainter-hookes, to rise vp by his fall. 1630R. Johnson's Kingd. & Commw. 134 Nor doe I here stretch my discourse on the tenter-hookes of partiality. 1700W. King Transactioneer 57 The poor People have set their Wits, as if it were on the Tenter-hooks, to make Turnep-Bread in Essex. 1841D'Israeli Amen. Lit. (1867) 213 (Invent. Printing) Honest men..sometimes strain truth on the tenter-hooks of fiction.
c. to be on (the) tenterhooks: i.e. in a state of painful suspense or impatience: cf. tenter n.1 3 b.
1748Smollett Rod. Rand. xlv, I left him upon the tenter-hooks of impatient uncertainty. 1812Sir R. Wilson Pr. Diary (1861) I. 127 Until I reach the imperial headquarters I shall be on tenter-hooks. 1897Sat. Rev. 25 Dec. 754/1 The author keeps..the reader..on tenterhooks.
3. attrib.
1576Fleming tr. Caius' Dogs (1880) 37 This dogge..is violent in fighting, & wheresoeuer he setteth his tenterhooke teeth, he taketh such sure & fast holde, that a man may sooner teare and rende him in sunder, then lose him and seperate his chappes. 1907Westm. Gaz. 12 Sept. 2/1 What may be called ‘tenterhook living’ or existence on the crust of a volcano. 1980P. Van Greenaway Dissident ii. 41 Alex had listened with tenterhook attention.
Hence † ˈtenter-ˌhooking a., laying hold with tenterhooks (in quot. fig.).
1615R. Brathwait Strappado (1878) 197 Avoid such tenter-hooking men. |