toothbrush
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of toothbrush
Explanation
When you clean your teeth, you use a toothbrush. Most toothbrushes are made of plastic, with soft bristles at one end for scrubbing your teeth. Before the modern toothbrush was invented, people used things like sticks, feathers, bones, and porcupine quills to clean their teeth. Twigs with frayed ends, called "chew sticks," were the toothbrush's precursor, and they are still used in various parts of the world. The earliest toothbrushes were invented in China, and the first patent was awarded in 1857 in the U.S. for a toothbrush with a bone handle and boar's hair bristles.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Boots, sun cream, toothbrush: players on World Cup duty have plenty of essential items to remember.
From BBC ● Jun. 6, 2026
Picking a color when you’re getting a new toothbrush.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 10, 2026
To overcome these drawbacks, Xing, Wenhao Qian, Xuanyong Liu, Jiajun Qiu and their team developed a new compound that produces ROS only when triggered by the motion of an electric toothbrush.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 23, 2026
They also get a toothbrush, soap and towels.
From Barron's ● Jan. 30, 2026
“Yes, ma’am,” I say, searching the medicine cabinet for my toothbrush.
From "Al Capone Does My Shirts" by Gennifer Choldenko
Volunteers organized the supplies — toothbrushes, baby wipes, instant soup and many other items — and loaded them into boxes, drawing hearts on the outside with magic marker.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 29, 2026
Hygiene is essential for everyday items that come into close contact with the body, including clothing, masks, and toothbrushes.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 26, 2026
Khalid, Julia and Benjamin don't have passports, and they've had to pay for things like toothbrushes out of pocket while detained in a hotel in Malabo, the economic capital.
From Barron's ● Feb. 26, 2026
Among Caldeira’s memorable returns are a half-built baby carrier, rubber speed bumps and a pack of toothbrushes.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 31, 2025
Since we no longer have toothbrushes or toothpaste, I use a handful of hay and run it over my teeth like a brush.
From "First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers" by Loung Ung
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.
