1550. Jyl of Brentford's Testament [Furnivall], 23. Fight with toothe and nayle.
1550. Hutchinson, Works (Parker Society), 213. [Oliphant, New Eng., i. 527. Men attack something] tooth and nail.
d. 1634. Randolph, Pot Good Ale [Century]. And physic . . . will stand against physic both tooth and nail.
1705. Ward, Hud. Red., i. iii. 6. Does Tooth and Nail so nobly stand By th' ancient Glories of the Land.
1706. Hearne, Reliquiæ, i. 114. The bishop laboured tooth and nayle to have brought in to have succeeded him a certain haughty Dr.
1749. Smollett, Gil Blas (1812), ii. i. He fell tooth and nail upon this course.
1809. Malkin, Gil Blas [Routledge], 7. This Lucrece of the Asturias . . . defended her sweet person tooth and nail.
1885. D. Teleg., 6 Nov. A desperate tooth-and-nail encounter.
Tooth-carpenter, subs. phr.
(common).—A dentist; a snag-fencer
(q.v.).
Tooth-drawer. Like a tooth-drawer,
phr. (old).—Thin;
meagre (Ray); bald.
1393. Langland, Piers Plowman C.), vii. 370. Of portours and of pyke-porses, and pyled (bald) toth-drawers.
Toother, subs. (pugilists').—A
blow on the mouth.
Toothful, subs. (common).—A
dram; a nip: cf. Thimbleful.
1868. Whyte Melville, White Rose, ii. 1. Step round and take a toothful of something short to our better acquaintance.
1885. Field, 4 April. A pull at the milk and soda water . . . or possibly a toothful of something a little stronger.
Toothpick, subs. (old).—1. 'A large stick' (Grose). The Crutch and Toothpick Brigade (modern) = foppish 'men about town': spec. (c. 1884) hangers-on at stage doors when burlesque was in full swing at the Gaiety: they affected, as the badge of their tribe, a crutch-handled stick and a toothpick.
2. (military).—See quot.
1901. Graphic, 15 June, 798. 2. These gallant gentlemen generally display sovereign contempt for the toothpick, as they dub the ornamental appendage to uniform . . . by the regulations.
Adj. (American).—Narrow and pointed, like a toothpick: spec. of footgear.
See Arkansas Toothpick.
Tooth-rake (or scraper), subs.
phr. (old).—A toothpick.
1696. Nomenclator, s.v. Denti-*scalpium. Curedent. A tooth-scraper, or tooth-rake.
Toothy-peg, subs. phr. (nursery).—A
tooth.
1839. Hood, Miss Kilmansegg. Turn we to little Miss Kilmansegg, Cutting her first little toothy-peg.
Tooting-tub, subs. phr. (old).—A
church organ.
[?]. Brooke, Eastford, 22. I've heard they're subscribing for an organ! Yes, an organ! What on earth will they do next? That ever I should live to see a Popish tootin'-tub stuck up in our gallery!
Tootle, subs. (University).—Trashy:
spec. of immature literary
effort.
1886. Daily News, 1 Dec. It will produce abundance of easy, loose, rhetorical amateur criticism—will produce tootle, as it used to be called.
Tootledum-Pattick, subs. phr.
(provincial).—A fool: see
Buffle.
