Main Entry: tooth

Pronunciation: \ˈtüth\

Function: noun

Inflected Form(s): plural teeth \ˈtēth\

Etymology: Middle English, from Old English tōth; akin to Old High German zand tooth, Latin dent-, dens, Greek odont-, odous

Date: before 12th century

1 a : one of the hard bony appendages that are borne on the jaws or in many of the lower vertebrates on other bones in the walls of the mouth or pharynx and serve especially for the prehension and mastication of food and as weapons of offense and defense b : any of various usually hard and sharp processes especially about the mouth of an invertebrate
2 : taste, liking
3 : a projection resembling or suggesting the tooth of an animal in shape, arrangement, or action <a saw tooth>: as a : any of the regular projections on the circumference or sometimes the face of a wheel that engage with corresponding projections on another wheel especially to transmit force : cog b : a small sharp-pointed marginal lobe or process on a plant
4 a : something that injures, tortures, devours, or destroys <jealousy with rankling tooth — Thomas Gray> b plural : effective means of enforcement <drug laws with teeth>
5 : a roughness of surface produced by mechanical or artificial means

— tooth·like \ˈtüth-ˌlīk\ adjective

— in the teeth of 1 : in or into direct contact or collision with <sailing in the teeth of a hurricane — Current Biography>
2 : in direct opposition to <rule had…been imposed by conquest in the teeth of obstinate resistance — A. J. Toynbee>

— to the teeth : fully, completely <armed to the teeth>

[tooth illustration]