A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (up to 1700)
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First published 2001 (DOST Vol. X).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
Quotation dates: 1612-1700+
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Tenter hook(e)s, -heucks, n. pl. Also: tunter huikes. [e.m.E. tentourhokes (1480), tenter-hookes (1630).] The hooks by which cloth is stretched on a tenter (Tenter n.). Also fig. —(a) 1612 Bk. Rates (Halyb.) 322.
Tenter hookes 1702 Foulis Acc. Bk. 305.
For tenter heucks —(b) 1633 Master of Works Accounts (ed.) II 384.
ijc tunter huikes at xx s. the hundereth —fig. 1625 Scot Vox Vera 35.
Discourse … may be regained by further search, or lengthened upon the tenter hookes of better opportunitie 1658 R. Moray Lett. 327.
To put you to the tenterhooks if need were
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"Tenter Hooks n. pl.". Dictionary of the Scots Language. 2004. Scottish Language Dictionaries Ltd. Accessed 30 Apr 2026 <http://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/dost/tenter_hookes>
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