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the process of making woolen cloth, over which wet cloth would be stretched to prevent shrinkage as it dries, but now superseded by the stenter in the textile manufacturing industry.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.
After a piece of cloth was woven, it still contained oil and dirt from the fleece; a craftsmen known as a fuller (in Scotland, Scots : tucker, waulker), cleaned the woollen cloth in a fulling mill, and thereafter dry it without allowing the fabric to shrink. To this end, the fuller stretches the wet cloth over a large wooden frame, called a tenter (from Latin tendere 'to stretch'), leaving it to dry outdoors. The lengths of wet cloth were stretched on the tenter using tenterhooks, hooked nails made with a long shank that was driven into the wooden tenter frame around its perimeter, on which the selvedges were fixed so that the cloth would retain its shape and size as it dried. [1]
Historically, tentergrounds (alternatively, tenter-fields), large open spaces full of tenters, wherever cloth was made, and as a result the word "tenter" is found in place names throughout the United Kingdom and its former colonial possessions, for example several streets in Spitalfields, London, [2] and Tenterfield House in Haddington, East Lothian, Scotland, which in turn gave its name to Tenterfield in New South Wales, Australia. [3]
The word tenter is still used today to refer to production line machinery employed to stretch polyester films and similar fabrics.[ citation needed ] The spelling stenter is also found.
By the mid-18th century, the phrase on tenterhooks came to mean being in a state of tension, uneasiness, anxiety, or suspense, i.e., figuratively stretched like the cloth on the tenter. [4]
John Ford's 1633 play Broken Heart contains the lines: "There is no faith in woman. Passion, O, be contain'd! My very heart-strings Are on the tenters." [5]
In 1690 the periodical The General History of Europe used the term in the modern sense: "The mischief is, they will not meet again these two years, so that all business must hang upon the tenterhooks till then." [6]
In 1826, English periodical Monthly magazine or British register of literature, sciences, and the belles-lettres contained the line "I hope (though the wish is a cruel one) that my fair readers, if any such readers have deigned to follow me thus far, are on tenterhooks to know to whom the prize was adjudged." [7] [8] In a letter to his wife the same year, American educator Francis Wayland (waiting for his promised appointment as President of Brown University) wrote "I was never so much on tenter hooks before." [9]
The misuse of "on tender hooks" instead of "on tenterhooks" is one of the most misused English phrases, or eggcorns, according to a 2017 survey of two thousand British adults, ranking in fifth place. [10]
A loom is a device used to weave cloth and tapestry. The basic purpose of any loom is to hold the warp threads under tension to facilitate the interweaving of the weft threads. The precise shape of the loom and its mechanics may vary, but the basic function is the same.
Canvas is an extremely durable plain-woven fabric used for making sails, tents, marquees, backpacks, shelters, as a support for oil painting and for other items for which sturdiness is required, as well as in such fashion objects as handbags, electronic device cases, and shoes. It is popularly used by artists as a painting surface, typically stretched across a wooden frame.
Fulling, also known as tucking or walking, is a step in woollen clothmaking which involves the cleansing of woven cloth to eliminate (lanolin) oils, dirt, and other impurities, and to make it shrink by friction and pressure. The work delivers a smooth, tightly finished fabric that is insulating and water-repellent. Well-known examples are duffel cloth, first produced in Flanders in the 14th century, and loden, produced in Austria from the 16th century on.
Laundry is the washing of clothing and other textiles, and, more broadly, their drying and ironing as well. Laundry has been part of history since humans began to wear clothes, so the methods by which different cultures have dealt with this universal human need are of interest to several branches of scholarship.
Felt is a textile that is produced by matting, condensing, and pressing fibers together. Felt can be made of natural fibers such as wool or animal fur, or from synthetic fibers such as petroleum-based acrylic or acrylonitrile or wood pulp–based rayon. Blended fibers are also common. Natural fiber felt has special properties that allow it to be used for a wide variety of purposes. It is "fire-retardant and self-extinguishing; it dampens vibration and absorbs sound; and it can hold large amounts of fluid without feeling wet..."
A tent is a shelter consisting of sheets of fabric or other material draped over, attached to a frame of poles or a supporting rope. While smaller tents may be free-standing or attached to the ground, large tents are usually anchored using guy ropes tied to stakes or tent pegs. First used as portable homes by nomads, tents are now more often used for recreational camping and as temporary shelters.
A tarpaulin or tarp is a large sheet of strong, flexible, water-resistant or waterproof material, often cloth such as canvas or polyester coated with polyurethane, or made of plastics such as polyethylene. Tarpaulins often have reinforced grommets at the corners and along the sides to form attachment points for rope, allowing them to be tied down or suspended.
A curtain is a piece of cloth or other material intended to block or obscure light, air drafts, or water. A curtain is also the movable screen or drape in a theatre that separates the stage from the auditorium or that serves as a backdrop/background.
Hessian, burlap in North America, or crocus in Jamaica and the wider Caribbean, is a woven fabric made of vegetable fibres, usually the skin of the jute plant or sisal leaves. It is generally used for duties of rough handling, such as making sacks employed to ship farm products and to act as covers for sandbags, and for wrapping tree-root balls. However, this dense woven fabric, historically coarse, more recently is being produced in a refined state, known simply as jute, as an eco-friendly material for bags, rugs, and other products.
An awning or overhang is a secondary covering attached to the exterior wall of a building. It is typically composed of canvas woven of acrylic, cotton or polyester yarn, or vinyl laminated to polyester fabric that is stretched tightly over a light structure of aluminium, iron or steel, possibly wood or transparent material. The configuration of this structure is something of a truss, space frame or planar frame. Awnings are also often constructed of aluminium understructure with aluminium sheeting. These aluminium awnings are often used when a fabric awning is not a practical application where snow load as well as wind loads may be a factor.
Chuts is the name applied to Jews who immigrated to London from the Netherlands in the mid-Victorian era (1850s–1860s). They typically came from the cities of Amsterdam and Rotterdam, and brought to London their trades: most notably those of cigar-, cap-, and slipper-making, and as small-time ship chandlers.
A tenterground, tenter ground or teneter-field was an area used for drying newly manufactured cloth after fulling. The wet cloth was hooked onto frames called "tenters" and stretched taut using "tenter hooks", so that the cloth would dry flat and square.
Textile printing is the process of applying color to fabric in definite patterns or designs. In properly printed fabrics the colour is bonded with the fibre, so as to resist washing and friction. Textile printing is related to dyeing but in dyeing properly the whole fabric is uniformly covered with one colour, whereas in printing one or more colours are applied to it in certain parts only, and in sharply defined patterns.
Polyurethane laminate is a compound fabric made by laminating a cloth fabric to one or both sides of a thin film of polyurethane. Polyurethane laminated fabrics have a wide range of applications in medical, automotive and garment uses.
Fjällräven is a Swedish brand specialising in outdoor equipment—mostly clothing and luggage.
The conservation and restoration of textiles refers to the processes by which textiles are cared for and maintained to be preserved from future damage. The field falls under the category of art conservation, heritage conservation as well as library preservation, depending on the type of collection. The concept of textile preservation applies to a wide range of artifacts, including tapestries, carpets, quilts, clothing, flags and curtains, as well as objects which "contain" textiles, such as upholstered furniture, dolls, and accessories such as fans, parasols, gloves and hats or bonnets. Many of these artifacts require specialized care, often by a professional conservator.
Textile manufacturing is one of the oldest human activities. The oldest known textiles date back to about 5000 B.C. In order to make textiles, the first requirement is a source of fibre from which a yarn can be made, primarily by spinning. The yarn is processed by knitting or weaving to create cloth. The machine used for weaving is the loom. Cloth is finished by what are described as wet process to become fabric. The fabric may be dyed, printed or decorated by embroidering with coloured yarns.
Oilcloth, also known as enameled cloth or American cloth, is close-woven cotton duck or linen cloth with a coating of boiled linseed oil to make it waterproof.
A stenter is a machine used in textile finishing. It serves multiple purposes, including heat setting, drying, and applying various chemical treatments. This may be achieved through the use of certain attachments such as padding or coating.
Bay was a napped coarse woolen fabric, not technically considered cloth, introduced to England by Flemish immigrants in the 16th century. It was produced in Essex at Colchester and Bocking, and also in various towns in the West of England. Production continued until the 19th century. Bays were made into linings for furniture, hangings, curtains, bed surroundings, and cloaks.
