on pins and needles

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

on pins and needles

1. (idiomatic) Feeling sharp anticipation or anxiety; in a state of suspense.
   • 1889, Mark Twain, chapter 6, in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court:

     Merlin hesitated a moment or two, and I was on pins and needles during that little while.

   • 1923, Hugh Lofting, chapter 1, in The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle, part 5:

     I was on pins and needles of expectation and curiosity.

• on tenterhooks

• pins and needles

• like a cat on a hot tin roof or like a cat on hot bricks
• in limbo