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• hound's tooth
  hound's tooth

  noun

  a pattern of broken or jagged checks, used on a variety of fabrics.
• hound's-tooth
  hound's-tooth

  adjective

  woven or printed with a pattern of broken or jagged checks.

hound's tooth

¹ American  

noun

1. a pattern of broken or jagged checks, used on a variety of fabrics.

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hound's-tooth ² American  

[houndz-tooth] / ˈhaʊndzˌtuθ /

adjective

1. woven or printed with a pattern of broken or jagged checks.

   a hound's-tooth jacket.

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Etymology

Origin of hound's tooth¹

First recorded in 1935–40

Origin of hound's-tooth²

First recorded in 1955–60

Example Sentences

To earn it the investigators must appear every day to be clean as a hound’s tooth.

From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 15, 2017

Harding asked for time to think, ten minutes later announced that he was as clean as a hound's tooth.

From Time Magazine Archive

Ike was at first undecided about whether or not to drop his running mate and told reporters that anyone on his ticket would have to prove himself "clean as a hound's tooth."

From Time Magazine Archive

A "sense of Congress" resolution with no legal force, the code urges officials to be loyal, hardworking, fair, clean as a hound's tooth.

From Time Magazine Archive

His features were classically regular; he stood six feet six; he was lean because fit, sound as a hound's tooth, and really a superb specimen of masculine health.

From Police!!! by Hutt, Henry