on pins and needles
6
7.4
- idiom
- Informal
:
nervioso
- Living on pins and needles has taken its toll on all of us.
- wait on pins and needles
- sit on pins and needles
- walk on pins and needles
And so we were all like, they're kind of like on pins and needles.
- And so we were all like, they're kind of like on pins and needles.
Examples
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I have been on pins and needles, waiting for the test results all week.
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I've been on pins and needles all day.
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We're on pins and needles.
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I could see he was on pins and needles... so I suggested that he go out into the open air for a while.
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Luke has not returned, and I am on pins and needles with worry.
Fiction book (1997) -
Why keep the nation on pins and needles until early January?
Blog text (16) -
"I was on pins and needles before the first results came in," he said.
Blog text (28) -
Everybody was a little bit on pins and needles about the millennium, and this show is the only show in popular culture that I know of that really tapped into that in a very real way.
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I was on pins and needles until I heard footsteps on the stairway hours and hours later, and opened the door to see Beau rushing up the stairs, taking two steps at a time.
Fiction book (1995) -
I've been on pins and needles waiting to hear back from grad schools (nothing in either direction, and it's been frustrating to say that when the few well-meaning people I've told I applied have asked).
Blog text (13)
Synonyms
9
4.6
Feeling nervous and unable to stay still
4
4.9
A nervous, excited feeling while you wait for important news
1
9.9
Feeling nervous and restless before an important event
Antonyms
How Nervous
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase evokes the literal sensation of 'pins and needles', which suggests physical discomfort and tense anticipation, so a learner who knows the words could partially infer a sense of unease. However, the conventionalized metaphorical shift to 'very nervous or anxious while waiting' is not fully predictable from the constituents alone, making the expression only partially transparent.
Etymology
On pins and needles comes from the prickly feeling when your leg or hand 'falls asleep' and then tingles as if tiny pins and needles are pricking you. So people used that sharp, uneasy image to say they were 'very nervous' while waiting for something to happen.