"Tenter" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... vain one, however, although the race from the start to the finish was a hot one, and one that kept the lovers of base-ball on tenter hooks until the season was over, while the betting in the poolrooms throughout the country was hot and heavy, and be it said right here, to the credit of the ball players, there was not the slightest suspicion or whisper of crookedness ...
— A Ball Player's Career - Being the Personal Experiences and Reminiscensces of Adrian C. Anson • Adrian C. Anson
... they all perished in the flames. Many were stripped naked, and being fastened to horses by ropes placed round their middles, were dragged through bogs till they expired. Some were hung by the feet to tenter-hooks driven into poles; and in that wretched posture left till they perished. Others were fastened to the trunk of a tree, with a branch at top. Over this branch hung one arm, which principally supported the weight of the body; and ...
— Fox's Book of Martyrs - Or A History of the Lives, Sufferings, and Triumphant - Deaths of the Primitive Protestant Martyrs • John Fox
... to be sentenced by the gentility party. He would fulfil his dukkeripen. Lavengro having ended abruptly enough, Borrow took .up the tale where he had left it off; and though he kept his admirers on the tenter-hooks for six years, did at last in 1857 give to the world The Romany Rye, to which he added an Appendix. Ah! that Appendix! It is Borrow's Apologia, and therefore must be read. It is interesting and amusing, and is therefore easily read. But it is a cruel and ...
— Lavengro - The Scholar, The Gypsy, The Priest • George Borrow
... hoped to reap great advantages,—a contrast in every way to the old, a Mirabeau come to life again, a Danton rehabilitated and turned army-contractor, a lion who talked of pitching every patriot into the Seine. She was on tenter-hooks, thinking to hear the bell ...
— The Gods are Athirst • Anatole France
... street and two or three streets outside Cripplegate. Moorfields are really fields. There are windmills, gardens with summer-houses, pasture-fields with cows, a large 'dogge house,' and fields where women appear to be laying out clothes to dry. Really, they are tenter fields, i.e. fields provided with 'tenters,' or pegs, by means of which cloth could be stretched. North of Moorfields is indicated rising ground with woods. There can be no doubt at all as to the course of the wall, which is here marked with the ...
— The History of London • Walter Besant
... know what he means by all this," declared Mrs. Atterson, angrily. "He's kept me on tenter-hooks for ten months, and there ought to be ...
— Hiram The Young Farmer • Burbank L. Todd
... if you came into my room, for the first time, with two left legs, presenting yourself with all the graces and dignity of a tailor, and your clothes hanging upon you, like those in Monmouth street, upon tenter-hooks! whereas, I expect, nay, require, to see you present yourself with the easy and genteel air of a man of fashion, who has kept good company. I expect you not only well dressed but very well dressed; I expect a gracefulness ...
— The PG Edition of Chesterfield's Letters to His Son • The Earl of Chesterfield
... about somebody else, Mary, whom you've kept on tenter-hooks ever so long? Are you sure he is not walking up and down under the limes ...
— The Trial - or, More Links of the Daisy Chain • Charlotte M. Yonge
... return came nigh, Aunt Judith and the household were on the tenter-hooks of impatience. Master George came, as he had intimated, accompanied by a lady, so eminently beautiful, that, had it not been for her extreme and uniform paleness, she might have been reckoned one of the loveliest creatures on earth. She had with her an attendant, or humble ...
— The Fortunes of Nigel • Sir Walter Scott
... strongly opposed by Lord Tenterden, the chief-justice of England, the Duke of Richmond, and the Earls of Winchilsea, Harewood, Mansfield, Falmouth, and Ermiskillen. Lord Tenter-den declared against it, because he knew it to be a violation of the constitution, and because he believed that it threatened ruin to the Protestant church, which he valued, not only for the purity of its doctrines, but because, of all churches that ever existed, it was ...
— The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. - From George III. to Victoria • E. Farr and E. H. Nolan
... with his ruddy looks. But what's the bush, whose pricks, like tenter-hooks, Do scratch and claw the finest lady's hands, Or rend her clothes, if she too near it stands? This bush an emblem is of Adam's race, Of which Christ came, when he his Father's grace Commended to us in his crimson blood, While he in sinners' stead and nature ...
— The Works of John Bunyan • John Bunyan
... any other sense, Will be discussed hereafter, I opine: At present I am glad of a pretence To leave them hovering, as the effect is fine, And keeps the atrocious reader in suspense; The surest way—for ladies and for books— To bait their tender—or their tenter—hooks. ...
— The Works of Lord Byron, Volume 6 • Lord Byron
... reduction of the heavy war-taxation that was imminent, if not already imposed. But these pioneers of 1830 were generally obnoxious. The great body of the people gloried in being Tories and haters of the French, with whom they were on tenter-hooks to fight, almost unaware of the rising reputation of the young Corsican warrior, whose name would be used ere a dozen years had passed to hush English babies with a terror such as that of Marlborough once had ...
— Sylvia's Lovers, Vol. I • Elizabeth Gaskell
... decisive operations by the States-General, on this occasion. On the 6th September, he wrote to them:—"Vos Hautes Puissances jugeront bien par le camp que nous venons de prendre, qu'on n'a pas voulu se resoudre a tenter les lignes. J'ai ete convaincu de plus en plus, depuis l'honneur que j'ai eu de vous ecrire, par les avis que j'ai recu journellement de la situation des ennemis, que cette entreprise n'etait pas seulement practicable, mais meme qu'on pourrait en esperer tout le succes que je m'etais ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Vol 58, No. 357, July 1845 • Various
... that the Colonel had gone to Boston with his sixty-five thousand dollars in his pocket. Lawyer Means's ancient relative, who served as house-keeper, was reported to have confessed that she was on tenter-hooks ...
— Jerome, A Poor Man - A Novel • Mary E. Wilkins Freeman
... Jim's future had never been alluded to by him since that day last September, when it had been discussed at our seaside-home; and now it was nearly Christmas, and Milly was on tenter-hooks to know if there was any thing favorable in store for her protege. She knew better, as I have said, than to hurry matters, or to ask any questions. That uncle Rutherford had not forgotten it, however, was evident from the way in ...
— Uncle Rutherford's Nieces - A Story for Girls • Joanna H. Mathews
... McMurrough," Asgill said, who on his side was on tenter-hooks lest Flavia and Morty O'Beirne should arrive from the Tower. "You'll like to get rid of your boots before supper, Major?" he went on. "Bid Darby send the Major's man to him, McMurrough; or, better, I'll be going to the stables myself and ...
— The Wild Geese • Stanley John Weyman
... conduire a la porte de la Cathedrale, y attendoit le nouvel Eveque, dans l'esperance de recevoir la vuee par son intercession. En effet, lorsqu'elle apprit qu'il approchoit, elle le conjura a haute voix de lui faire voir la lumiere. Le Saint frappe d'une telle demande en rougit, et crut que c'etoit tenter Dieu que d'attendre de lui des Miracles. Mais cette pauvre femme ne cessant de crier comme l'Aveugle de l'Evangile, le Saint poussa un profond soupir, et ayant plus d'egard a la foi de la suppliante qu'a son propre merite, il invoqua le secours du saint Esprit, fit avec ...
— Architectural Antiquities of Normandy • John Sell Cotman
... Loveday took him into the garden, all the while upon tenter-hooks, not lest Buonaparte should appear in their midst, but lest Bob should come whilst he was not there to receive him. When they had got into a corner Uncle Benjy said, 'Miller, what with the French, and what with my nephew Festus, I assure ye my life is nothing but wherrit from morning to ...
— The Trumpet-Major • Thomas Hardy |
