: 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
: a projection resembling or suggesting the tooth of an animal in shape, arrangement, or action
a saw tooth
: such 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
3
a
teeth plural: effective means of enforcement
drug laws with teeth
b
: something that injures, tortures, devours, or destroys
The dentist will have to pull that tooth.
You should brush your teeth every morning and night.
She clenched her teeth in anger.
He has a set of false teeth.
the teeth of a saw
The labor union showed that it has teeth.
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English advises saturating natural hair mats with Designme’s leave-in treatment, then applying their rich hydrating mask before detangling (first pass with your fingers, then with a wide-tooth comb) from the ends to the roots.—Grace McCarty, Glamour, 5 Sep. 2025 Just six months ago, Mako could not be touched on his face without showing his teeth and would react to any abrupt hand movements.—Maria Morava, MSNBC Newsweek, 4 Sep. 2025 More than half of parents in the survey paid their kids an allowance, and 96% of parents used the Tooth Fairy to give their children an extra few bucks (average Tooth Fairy payout is $5 per tooth, the study found).—Madeline Mitchell, USA Today, 4 Sep. 2025 One of the ram’s front teeth was missing — a sure sign of old age.—Tim Kelly, Outdoor Life, 4 Sep. 2025 See All Example Sentences for tooth
Word History
Etymology
Middle English, from Old English tōth; akin to Old High German zand tooth, Latin dent-, dens, Greek odont-, odous
First Known Use
before the 12th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a
Time Traveler
The first known use of tooth was
before the 12th century
: any of the hard bony appendages that are borne on the jaws and serve especially for the prehension and mastication of food see milk tooth, permanent tooth
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