tooth

[tooth]

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SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR tooth ON THESAURUS.COM

noun, plural teeth.

(in most vertebrates) one of the hard bodies or processes usually attached in a row to each jaw, serving for the prehension and mastication of food, as weapons of attack or defense, etc., and in mammals typically composed chiefly of dentin surrounding a sensitive pulp and covered on the crown with enamel.

(in invertebrates) any of various similar or analogous processes occurring in the mouth or alimentary canal, or on a shell.

any projection resembling or suggesting a tooth.

one of the projections of a comb, rake, saw, etc.

Machinery.

any of the uniform projections on a gear or rack by which it drives, or is driven by, a gear, rack, or worm.
any of the uniform projections on a sprocket by which it drives or is driven by a chain.

Botany.

any small, toothlike marginal lobe.
one of the toothlike divisions of the peristome of mosses.

a sharp, distressing, or destructive attribute or agency.

taste, relish, or liking.

a surface, as on a grinding wheel or sharpening stone, slightly roughened so as to increase friction with another part.

a rough surface created on a paper made for charcoal drawing, watercolor, or the like, or on canvas for oil painting.

verb (used with object), toothed [tootht, toothd] /tuθt, tuðd/, tooth·ing [too-thing, -thing] /ˈtu θɪŋ, -ðɪŋ/.

to furnish with teeth.

to cut teeth upon.

verb (used without object), toothed [tootht, toothd] /tuθt, tuðd/, tooth·ing [too-thing, -thing] /ˈtu θɪŋ, -ðɪŋ/.

to interlock, as cogwheels.

Idioms

by the skin of one's teeth, barely: He got away by the skin of his teeth.

cast/throw in someone's teeth, to reproach someone for (an action): History will ever throw this blunder in his teeth.

cut one's teeth on, to do at the beginning of one's education, career, etc., or in one's youth: The hunter boasted of having cut his teeth on tigers.

in the teeth of,

so as to face or confront; straight into or against: in the teeth of the wind.
in defiance of; in opposition to: She maintained her stand in the teeth of public opinion.

long in the tooth, old; elderly.

put teeth in/into, to establish or increase the effectiveness of: to put teeth into the law.

set one's teeth, to become resolute; prepare for difficulty: He set his teeth and separated the combatants.

set/put one's teeth on edge,

to induce an unpleasant sensation.
to repel; irritate: The noise of the machines sets my teeth on edge.

show one's teeth, to become hostile or threatening; exhibit anger: Usually friendly, she suddenly began to show her teeth.

to the teeth, entirely; fully: armed to the teeth; dressed to the teeth in furs.

Origin of tooth

before 900; Middle English; Old English tōth; cognate with Dutch tand, German Zahn, Old Norse tǫnn; akin to Gothic tunthus, Latin dēns, Greek odoús (Ionic odṓn), Sanskrit dánta

Related formstooth·like, adjective

Synonyms for tooth

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR tooth ON THESAURUS.COM

8. fondness, partiality, predilection.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for tooth

ivory, snag, tush, tusk, molar, premolar, fang, cuspid, bicuspid, incisor, eyetooth, projection, point, stub, cog, peg, root, prong, denticle, canine

Examples from the Web for tooth

Contemporary Examples of tooth

For all of the bellyaching, tooth gnashing, and public wailing, Democrats have no one to blame but themselves.
How the Lame Democrats Blew It
Goldie Taylor
November 5, 2014
He had only one tooth, and he ate by using his thumb as a second incisor.
The Stacks: The Judas Priest Teen Suicide Trial
Ivan Solotaroff
June 28, 2014
Wall Street fought the establishment of the Securities and Exchange Commission tooth and nail; the SEC helped revive the industry.
The Chicken Littles Are Wrong: Environmental Regulations Always Spur Innovation
Daniel Gross
June 9, 2014
“He is an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth,” he said to the nervous crowd of onlookers.
U.K. Beheading Trial’s Grisly Start
Nico Hines
November 30, 2013
There is a debate about whether or not tooth brushing is allowed.
First Friday of Ramadan For Palestinians
Maysoon Zayid
July 12, 2013

Historical Examples of tooth

We have brains, and with our brains we must do in a scientific way what Nature does with tooth and claw.
Her Father's Daughter
Gene Stratton-Porter
Every tooth of the dragon had produced one of these sons of deadly mischief.
Tanglewood Tales
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Wherever a dragon's tooth had fallen, there stood a man armed for battle.
Tanglewood Tales
Nathaniel Hawthorne
The Widder detected it, and occupied herself with her tooth.
Meadow Grass
Alice Brown
I passed you close enough to pull a tooth, but you were awful busy.
Alice Adams
Booth Tarkington

British Dictionary definitions for tooth

tooth

noun plural teeth (tiːθ)

any of various bonelike structures set in the jaws of most vertebrates and modified, according to the species, for biting, tearing, or chewingRelated adjective: dental

any of various similar structures in invertebrates, occurring in the mouth or alimentary canal

anything resembling a tooth in shape, prominence, or functionthe tooth of a comb

any of the various small indentations occurring on the margin of a leaf, petal, etc

any one of a number of uniform projections on a gear, sprocket, rack, etc, by which drive is transmitted

taste or appetite (esp in the phrase sweet tooth)

long in the tooth old or ageing: used originally of horses, because their gums recede with age

tooth and nail with ferocity and forcewe fought tooth and nail

verb (tuːð, tuːθ)

(tr) to provide with a tooth or teeth

(intr) (of two gearwheels) to engage

Derived Formstoothless, adjectivetoothlike, adjective

Word Origin for tooth

Old English tōth; related to Old Saxon tand, Old High German zand, Old Norse tonn, Gothic tunthus, Latin dens

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for tooth

Old English toð (plural teð), from Proto-Germanic *tanth, *tunth (cf. Old Saxon, Danish, Swedish, Dutch tand, Old Norse tönn, Old Frisian toth, Old High German zand, German Zahn, Gothic tunþus), from PIE *dont-/*dent- "tooth" (cf. Sanskrit danta, Greek odontos, Latin dens, Lithuanian dantis, Old Irish det, Welsh dent). Plural form teeth is an instance of i-mutation. Application to tooth-like parts of other objects (saws, combs, etc.) first recorded 1520s.

tooth in Medicine

tooth

[tōōth]

n. pl. teeth (tēth)

One of a set of hard, bonelike structures rooted in sockets in the jaws of vertebrates, typically composed of a core of soft pulp surrounded by a layer of hard dentin that is coated with cement or enamel at the crown and used chiefly for biting or chewing food or as a means of attack or defense.

tooth in Science

tooth

[tōōth]

Plural teeth (tēth)

Any of the hard bony structures in the mouth used to grasp and chew food and as weapons of attack and defense. In mammals and many other vertebrates, the teeth are set in sockets in the jaw. In fish and amphibians, they grow in and around the palate. See also dentition.

A similar structure in certain invertebrate animals.

tooth in Culture

tooth

A hard structure, embedded in the jaws of the mouth, that functions in chewing. The tooth consists of a crown, covered with hard white enamel; a root, which anchors the tooth to the jawbone; and a “neck” between the crown and the root, covered by the gum. Most of the tooth is made up of dentin, which is located directly below the enamel. The soft interior of the tooth, the pulp, contains nerves and blood vessels. Humans have molars for grinding food, incisors for cutting, and canines and bicuspids for tearing.

Idioms and Phrases with tooth

tooth

In addition to the idiom beginning with tooth

tooth fairy

also see:

fight tooth and nail
fine-tooth comb
long in the tooth
sweet tooth

Also see underteeth.