English Grammar - Idioms and Phrases

English Grammar
English Grammar - Idioms and Phrases

Choose correct idiomatic expression for the blank space from the given options : The parents were ………… till their children came back safe and sound.


Options:

  1. on tenterhooks
  2. out of the wood
  3. on the sly
  4. out and out

Right Answer: on tenterhooks

To be ‘on tenterhooks’ is to be in a state of anxious suspense while waiting for something uncertain to happen, which is exactly the parents’ condition until their children came back safe and sound. The image comes from the tenter, a frame on which newly woven cloth was stretched taut by hooks so that it dried without shrinking. ‘Out of the wood’ means free from danger, which is the opposite of what is required; ‘on the sly’ means secretly; and ‘out and out’ means thorough or complete, and is used as an intensifying adjective.

This question is part of English Grammar - Idioms and Phrases, which has 10 practice questions with answers.

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