Phrases and Combinations.—Hen's teeth = anything imaginary or rare, a rara avis: cf. black swan; in spite of one's teeth = (1) in face of opposition; (2) under protest; in the teeth = (1) with difficulty or much ado; (2) at long odds, or against the grain; and (3) to one's face; to cast (or throw) in the teeth = to accuse, blame, or bring home to: see Matthew xxvii. 44; to grind (or show) one's teeth = to take amiss, to get angry; to set one's teeth = to steel oneself, to put one's foot down; to one's teeth = resolutely, boldly, openly; from one's teeth = reluctantly, as a matter of form, not seriously; to hit in the teeth = to taunt, to twit; to hide one's teeth = to dissemble, to feign friendship; to lie in one's teeth = to tell unblushing falsehoods; with teeth and all (see Tooth-and-nail); between the teeth = in a whisper, aside; to set the teeth on edge = to repel, offend, or shock; to take the bit in one's teeth, = to cast aside restraint, 'to kick over the traces'; to have cut one's eye (or high) teeth = to be cute or knowing, to know what's what (q.v.); old in the tooth = advanced in years: spec. in contempt of old maids; armed to the teeth = fully prepared, alert, awake (q.v.); by the skin of the teeth = barely, 'by a close shave'; clean as a hound's tooth = as clean as may be, highly polished; to carry a bone in the teeth (see Bone); to have the teeth well afloat (or under) = to be drunk; to the hard teeth = very severely; to go to grass with teeth upwards = to be buried; to draw teeth = (medical students': obsolete) to wrench off knockers; dog's-tooth = a snaggle tooth, a tombstone (q.v.); colt's-tooth (see ante); 'He ought to have his teeth drawn' = He should be curbed, sat upon (q.v.).
1542. Udal, Erasmus, 355. Cicero marked her to the hard teeth.
1593 (and after). Shakspeare [see quots. s.v. Teeth].
1596. Drayton, Baron's Wars, ii. 43. Mowbray in fight him matchless honour won: . . . Gifford seemed danger to her teeth to dare.
1603. Court and Times James I. [Among the verbs is] show our teeth.
1614. Fletcher, Wit Sev. Weapons, v. 1. If you have done me a good turn do not hit me i' the teeth with 't; that's not the part of a friend.
1653. Urquhart, Rabelais, i. 49. Four brigades . . . had no sooner reached the top of the hill but they met Picrochole in the teeth, and those that were with him scattered.
1663. Dryden, Wild Gallant [Littledale]. I am confident she is only angry from the teeth outwards.
d. 1713. Ellwood, Life [Howell], 322. The jailer . . . hid his teeth . . . putting on a show of kindness.
1725. Young, Love of Fame, i. 17. When the law shews her teeth, but dare not bite.
1790. Bruce, Source of Nile, i. 62. A strong, steady gale almost directly in their teeth.
c. 1827. Macaulay, Hallam's Const. Hist. As the oath taken by the clergy was in the teeth of their principles, so was their conduct in the teeth of their oath.
1876. Blackmore, Cripps the Carrier, i. The carrier scarcely knew what to do in the teeth of so urgent a message.
Tooth and Nail, adv. phr. (colloquial).—In
earnest; to the
utmost: i.e., even to biting and
scratching. Also with teeth
and all.
