tooth

American  

[tooth] / tuθ /

noun

• teeth
  plural

1. (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.

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

3. any projection resembling or suggesting a tooth.

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

5. Machinery.

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

   2. any of the uniform projections on a sprocket by which it drives or is driven by a chain.

6. Botany.

   1. any small, toothlike marginal lobe.

   2. one of the toothlike divisions of the peristome of mosses.

7. a sharp, distressing, or destructive attribute or agency.

8. taste, relish, or liking.

   Synonyms:

   predilection, partiality, fondness

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

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

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verb (used with object)

toothed, toothing

1. to furnish with teeth.

2. to cut teeth upon.

verb (used without object)

toothed, toothing

1. to interlock, as cogwheels.

idioms

1. by the skin of one's teeth, barely.

   He got away by the skin of his teeth.

2. show one's teeth, to become hostile or threatening; exhibit anger.

   Usually friendly, she suddenly began to show her teeth.

3. set / put one's teeth on edge,

   1. to induce an unpleasant sensation.

   2. to repel; irritate.

      The noise of the machines sets my teeth on edge.

4. long in the tooth, old; elderly.

5. cast / throw in someone's teeth, to reproach someone for (an action).

   History will ever throw this blunder in his teeth.

6. to the teeth, entirely; fully.

   armed to the teeth; dressed to the teeth in furs.

7. 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.

8. in the teeth of,

   1. so as to face or confront; straight into or against.

      in the teeth of the wind.

   2. in defiance of; in opposition to.

      She maintained her stand in the teeth of public opinion.

9. set one's teeth, to become resolute; prepare for difficulty.

   He set his teeth and separated the combatants.

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

    to put teeth into the law.

tooth British  

/ tuːθ /

noun

1. any of various bonelike structures set in the jaws of most vertebrates and modified, according to the species, for biting, tearing, or chewing

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

3. anything resembling a tooth in shape, prominence, or function

   the tooth of a comb

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

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

6. taste or appetite (esp in the phrase sweet tooth )

7. old or ageing: used originally of horses, because their gums recede with age

8. with ferocity and force

   we fought tooth and nail

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verb

1. (tr) to provide with a tooth or teeth

2. (intr) (of two gearwheels) to engage

tooth Scientific  

/ to̅o̅th /

• teeth
  plural

1. 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.

2. See also dentition

3. A similar structure in certain invertebrate animals.

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tooth Cultural  

1. 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.

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tooth More Idioms  

More idioms and phrases containing tooth

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

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• toothless
  adjective
• toothlike
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• teeth
  plural

Etymology

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

Explanation

Each of the hard, bone-like things in your mouth, the ones you use for chewing food, is called a tooth. When you lost your first tooth, you probably put it under your pillow in the hopes that the Tooth Fairy would come and leave you a surprise. Teeth are as hard as bone, but they're actually made of layers of very dense tissue, with enamel on the outside. Humans lose their original set of teeth when they're children, growing new ones to replace them, while sharks grow an entirely new set every two weeks. Something is also called a tooth when it resembles animal teeth, like the teeth of a saw or a gear. When you fight tooth and nail, you fight fiercely.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

tooth teeth toothed toothing

Something like a million people vote in this event every year, according to the daytime news segment that I caught at the dentist the other afternoon while getting a tooth cleaning.

From Salon ● Sep. 26, 2026

He fought for the working men and women of the country tooth and nail.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 25, 2026

The secret is hidden in microscopic chemical bonds preserved inside tooth enamel.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 20, 2026

At a punk show, a singer’s tooth was chipped when a crowd member bumped into the microphone, prompting a reminder to tone down the rowdiness.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 18, 2026

“Y’all got some kinda crazy sweet tooth or something?” he asks, ringing everything up.

From "Isaiah Dunn Is My Hero" by Kelly J. Baptist

Blood samples are easier to profile, but those taken from teeth or bones can take several days to process.

From Barron's ● Oct. 2, 2026

"Many teeth from Saurichthys were once mistaken for those of an amphibian, and that misunderstanding continued well into the 20th Century," said Museum Wales curator Cindy Howells.

From BBC ● Sep. 28, 2026

"While teeth remain among the most informative fossils available, this work demonstrates that teeth cannot always tell us how the whole animal looked."

From Science Daily ● Sep. 28, 2026

The fish arrived at the table whole, head on, its sharp teeth still plainly visible.

From Salon ● Sep. 27, 2026

I said through gritted teeth as I blinked at the tears I hadn’t even noticed until now.

From "Glitch" by Laura Martin

In a study published in Science Advances on Wednesday, researchers equipped six of the toothed whales, sometimes called "unicorns of the sea," with satellite transmitters, and had them explore remote East Greenland waters.

From Barron's ● Aug. 26, 2026

Also unearthed were fireplaces containing evidence of the burning of toothed wrack seaweed to form soda ash.

From BBC ● Mar. 25, 2026

The inspectors also reported crews spraying contaminated pool water onto neighboring properties and into storm drains, and excavator operators using toothed buckets that caused clean and contaminated soil to be commingled.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 29, 2025

"The tenaculum is a developmental relic, not a bizarre one-off, and the first clear example of a toothed structure outside the jaw."

From Science Daily ● Oct. 16, 2025

I didn't have a good answer to that, and instead toothed my bottom lip to keep it from quivering.

From "Patina" by Jason Reynolds

Then comes a softening process to prepare the files for the men who grind or file them to a true form, and for toothing.

From A Month in Yorkshire by Walter White

The second year included rowlock and bonded segmental arches; blocking, toothing, and corbeling; building and bonding of vaulted walls; polygonal and circular walls, piers and chimneys; fire-places and flues.

From One Way Out A Middle-class New-Englander Emigrates to America by William Carleton

The depth of the toothing is 18 mm.

From Scientific American Supplement, No. 441, June 14, 1884. by Various

The depth of the toothing is 10 mm.

From Scientific American Supplement, No. 441, June 14, 1884. by Various

It frequently happens, that during Dentition, or the Time of their toothing, Children prove subject to Knots or Kernels.

From Advice to the people in general, with regard to their health by S. A. D. (Samuel Auguste David) Tissot