cut one's teeth on
Also, cut one's eyeteeth on. Get one's first experience by doing, or learn early in life, as in I cut my teeth on this kind of layout or He cut his eyeteeth on magazine editing. This term alludes to the literal verb to cut teeth, meaning “to have teeth first emerge through a baby's gums,” a usage dating from the late 1600s.
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Words nearby cut one's teeth on
cut off one's nose to spite one's face, cut-offs, cut off with a shilling, cut of one's jib, cut one's losses, cut one's teeth on, cutout, cut out of whole cloth, cutover, cut-pile, cut plug
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.