- (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.
- (in invertebrates) any of various similar or analogous processes occurring in the mouth or alimentary canal, or on a shell.
- any projection resembling or suggesting a tooth.
- one of the projections of a comb, rake, saw, etc.
- Machinery.
- any of the uniform projections on a gear or rack by which it drives, or is driven by, a gear, rack, or worm.
- any of the uniform projections on a sprocket by which it drives or is driven by a chain.
- Botany.
- any small, toothlike marginal lobe.
- one of the toothlike divisions of the peristome of mosses.
- a sharp, distressing, or destructive attribute or agency.
- taste, relish, or liking.
- a surface, as on a grinding wheel or sharpening stone, slightly roughened so as to increase friction with another part.
- a rough surface created on a paper made for charcoal drawing, watercolor, or the like, or on canvas for oil painting.
- to furnish with teeth.
- to cut teeth upon.
- to interlock, as cogwheels.
- barely: He got away by the skin of his teeth.
- to reproach someone for (an action): History will ever throw this blunder in his teeth.
- 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.
- in the teeth of,
- so as to face or confront; straight into or against: in the teeth of the wind.
- in defiance of; in opposition to: She maintained her stand in the teeth of public opinion.
- old; elderly.
- to establish or increase the effectiveness of: to put teeth into the law.
- to become resolute; prepare for difficulty: He set his teeth and separated the combatants.
- set / put one's teeth on edge,
- to induce an unpleasant sensation.
- to repel; irritate: The noise of the machines sets my teeth on edge.
- to become hostile or threatening; exhibit anger: Usually friendly, she suddenly began to show her teeth.
- entirely; fully: armed to the teeth; dressed to the teeth in furs.
- any of various bonelike structures set in the jaws of most vertebrates and modified, according to the species, for biting, tearing, or chewing
- any of various similar structures in invertebrates, occurring in the mouth or alimentary canal
- anything resembling a tooth in shape, prominence, or function
- any of the various small indentations occurring on the margin of a leaf, petal, etc
- any one of a number of uniform projections on a gear, sprocket, rack, etc, by which drive is transmitted
- taste or appetite (esp in the phrase sweet tooth)
- old or ageing: used originally of horses, because their gums recede with age
- with ferocity and force
- to provide with a tooth or teeth
- (of two gearwheels) to engage
