Word to express nervous anticipation [duplicate]

Is there a word or phrase that expresses the feeling of nervous anticipation as you wait for the result of something, whose outcome you cannot control and could be either good or bad?


Solution 1:

anxiety

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/anxiety?s=t

It's a very precise word denoting exactly what you describe.

anxious

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/anxious?s=t

This one is very often misused. People think it's synonymous with "eager," which is kind of silly. It is not.

Solution 2:

I am like a cat on hot bricks.

Also, "like a cat on a hot tin roof".

Definition: Restless or skittish, unable to remain still.

Example: Nervous about the lecture he had to give, David was like a cat on hot bricks.

Other idioms:

  • to wait on tenterhooks (in a state of uneasy suspense or painful anxiety)
  • to sit on a hot rock
  • to be on pins and needles