tenterhooks

plural noun

□ on tenterhooks

she had been on tenterhooks all night, waiting for Joe to return:

in suspense, waiting with bated breath;

anxious, nervous, nervy, apprehensive, worried, worried sick, on edge, edgy, tense, strained, stressed, agitated, in a state of nerves, in a state of agitation, fretful, restless, worked up, keyed up, overwrought, wrought up, strung out, jumpy, with one's stomach in knots, with one's heart in one's mouth, like a cat on a hot tin roof, fidgety, on pins and needles;

informal with butterflies in one's stomach, jittery, twitchy, in a state, uptight, wired, in a stew, in a dither, all of a dither, in a sweat, in a flap, in a tizz/tizzy, all of a lather, het up, in a twitter, waiting for the axe to fall;

British, informal strung up, windy, having kittens, all of a doodah;

North American, informal spooky, squirrelly, in a twit;

Australian, New Zealand, informal toey;

British, vulgar slang shitting bricks, bricking oneself;

dated overstrung.