Tooth

English Meaning

One of the hard, bony appendages which are borne on the jaws, or on other bones in the walls of the mouth or pharynx of most vertebrates, and which usually aid in the prehension and mastication of food.

1. 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 cementum or enamel at the crown and used for biting or chewing food or as a means of attack or defense.
2. A similar structure in invertebrates, such as one of the pointed denticles or ridges on the exoskeleton of an arthropod or the shell of a mollusk.
3. A projecting part resembling a tooth in shape or function, as on a comb, gear, or saw.
4. A small, notched projection along a margin, especially of a leaf. Also called dent2.
5. A rough surface, as of paper or metal.
6. Something that injures or destroys with force. Often used in the plural: the teeth of the blizzard.
7. Effective means of enforcement; muscle: "This . . . puts real teeth into something where there has been only lip service” ( Ellen Convisser).
8. Taste or appetite: She always had a sweet tooth.
9. To furnish (a tool, for example) with teeth.
10. To make a jagged edge on.
11. To become interlocked; mesh.
12. get Slang To be actively involved in; get a firm grasp of.
13. show To express a readiness to fight; threaten defiantly.
14. to the teeth Lacking nothing; completely: armed to the teeth; dressed to the teeth.