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bare one's teeth

Idioms  

  1. Also, show one's teeth. Indicate hostility and readiness to fight, as in His refusal to accept my offer made it clear I'd have to bare my teeth, or In this instance, calling in a lawyer is showing one's teeth. This figurative term transfers the snarl of a dog to human anger. It first was recorded as show one's teeth in 1615.

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.