Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Plural of tooth.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • intransitive verb To breed, or grow, teeth.
  • noun pl. of tooth.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Plural form of tooth.
  • noun The ability to be enforced, or to be enforced to any useful effect.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the kind and number and arrangement of teeth (collectively) in a person or animal

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Old English tēþ, nominative plural of tōþ.

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Examples

  • She dances through room after room until she finds the group scattered across a banquet, they look at her with huge eyes, all inky-black pupils, and smile wide, wide, wide, wide, wide smiles and if she shakes her head from left to right real fast she can see a fast white line of teeth blending from one head into and another… teeth, teeth, teeth… her cousin is clenching her teeth.

    partygirl Diary Entry partygirl 2002

  • The probability that their teeth were taken out by force, is increased by the fact of their being _front teeth_ in almost every case, and from the fact that the loss of no _other_ is mentioned in the advertisements.

    The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Omnibus American Anti-Slavery Society

  • The probability that their teeth were taken out by force, is increased by the fact of their being _front teeth_ in almost every case, and from the fact that the loss of no _other_ is mentioned in the advertisements.

    The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Part 3 of 4 American Anti-Slavery Society

  • ssoooooo……..teeth huh……wow…..wouldn't have thought of that….sure teeth, but 'lots of teeth'…..now thats whats missing, makes so much sense now.

    Alex Proyas on Vampire Mythology for Dracula: Year Zero « FirstShowing.net 2008

  • "Observaciones sobre el clima de Lima y sus influencias en los seres organizados en especial el hombre."] [Footnote 16: The women of Lima clean their teeth several times a day with the root called _Raiz de dientes_ (literally _root for the teeth_), of which they keep a piece constantly in their pocket.] [Footnote 17: It is related that, during the war of independence, when

    Travels in Peru, on the Coast, in the Sierra, Across the Cordilleras and the Andes, into the Primeval Forests Johann Jakob von Tschudi 1853

  • I have also heard that the wear on the teeth is a way to get a rough veiw of the age of the deer

    Aging Whittails 2009

  • I have also heard that the wear on the teeth is a way to get a rough veiw of the age of the deer

    Aging Whittails 2009

  • I find I have so little time with the two kids that brushing my teeth is a luxury.

    Self-Portrait Of Truthiness | Her Bad Mother 2008

  • I hear that spinach in the teeth is a new fad, kind of like those giant plugs kids are putting in their earlobes now.

    Repetitive Virginity 2007

  • The idea of shimming slivers of stainless steel between my teeth is a little disturbing, but I can't deny that the design and execution are quite cool.

    Boing Boing: January 22, 2006 - January 28, 2006 Archives 2006

Comments

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  • Only 14 of 8,000+ Wordies have teeth? I hope there's soup on the Porch, dontcry.

    July 25, 2008

  • And ice cream, too, dc.

    July 25, 2008

  • I have teeth.

    July 25, 2008

  • I do have teeth, Bilby! (In a glass on my bedside cupboard – not!!).

    July 26, 2008

  • Teeth here as well.

    Soup's on though, just in case...

    July 26, 2008

  • I don't see any evidence you have teeth, dontcry. Perhaps you only have tooth.

    July 26, 2008

  • Yes, I think dontcry is fibbing about her toothiness.

    July 26, 2008

  • Do you have teethjam, yarb?

    July 26, 2008

  • Yes, as a matter of fact I do. All the jam accumulated in other people's toes is to be found surrounding my teeth. My teeth are jammier than The Jam, jamming in a traffic jam, with jam butties jammed in their jammies.

    July 26, 2008

  • Nobody is listing "a group of things of the same kind that belong together and are so used". Why don't you?

    Nobody is listing "a particular complex anatomical part of a living thing". Why don't you?

    I used to think I knew what teeth are. Reading those Weirdnet definitions, now I'm not so sure.

    I'll have the bisque, please.

    July 26, 2008

  • yarb & bilby: why don't you come a litle closer and I'll give you a demonstration of my toothiness...?

    July 27, 2008

  • *fearless*

    No, you don't have toothiness either.

    July 27, 2008

  • I have a bird named Tooth. Does that count?

    July 29, 2008

  • is that because you've used him to replace one of yours?

    July 29, 2008

  • I do SO have toothiness. Why, I have such toothiness that some of my teeth have teeth. That's right. In places, here and there, I'm double-toothed! So there.

    July 29, 2008

  • reesetee, do you also have a snake named Hair?

    July 29, 2008

  • I've also been described as toothsome, for your information!

    July 29, 2008

  • Or a shark named Lung...

    July 30, 2008

  • Or a guinea pig named Eye...?

    July 30, 2008

  • Yes, all of them. They are all in my fine (excuse me, bestiary) bestiary. I also have an octopus named Fly, a kangaroo named Lope, and a lion named Baldy. It's a real hoot at feeding time.

    Oh, and speaking of hoot--I almost forgot my owl. Name is Chirp.

    July 30, 2008

  • P.S. Why do porch owners always brag about the size of their teeth?

    July 30, 2008

  • It's not bragging if it's true.

    July 30, 2008

  • Okay dontcry, I'm beginning to see your toothiness.

    July 30, 2008

  • Wait... yarb... butties? Can you explain how jam butties differ from, say, chip butties?

    *waits*

    August 1, 2008

  • Certainly: the difference between a chip butty and a jam butty is that the former has jam in it, but no chips, while the lattter, per contra, contains chips, but not one whit of jam.

    August 1, 2008

  • Aaahh... all is revealed. But you still have butter on it, with the jam? And chips? Respectively? Actual butter? Really?

    August 1, 2008

  • Yes; how could you not?

    August 1, 2008

  • Ohhh... I think I'm gonna be sick...

    August 1, 2008

  • Bread, butter and jam is a jam sandwich! Could you please explain to me what's hork-inducing about that? Sure, you might not have a sweet tooth - I don't - in which case you'll prefer chip butties. But your continued incredulity at the concept suggests a deeper abhorrence.

    August 1, 2008

  • I think maybe it's butter and jam... *queasy* ... Yes, that's it.

    The idea of putting butter on any kind of sandwich still strikes me as weird after lo, these many years--probably just because I didn't grow up with it. Butter and ham (and mayonnaise, or not), butter and chips, butter and pickles, butter and jam... Is there a larger cultural significance to putting butter on *every* kind of sandwich? Is it just habit? Is the presence of butter on all sandwiches one reason why many Brits and Aussies think peanut butter and jelly (jam) is gross? Since there wouldn't be any actual butter on it?

    Yarb, for the record, since you sounded piqued, I am asking in a spirit of genuine curiosity. I've only ever seen/heard of chip butties, and didn't know there was another kind until you mentioned jam butties. Is "butty" ("buttie" in singular?) a general synonym for sandwich? Or is it only a certain kind of sandwich?

    August 1, 2008

  • C_b, do you like butter and jam on toast?

    August 1, 2008

  • No pique inferred, c_b. I'm always happy to talk about butties (singular butty). It is indeed a general synonym for sandwich, more prevalent in some parts of the UK than others, but generally understood.

    I was brought up with butter on every kind of sandwich, including PB&J (Canadian mother). I have met a few people who find this odd. I think butter is tied very closely to bread in the cultural imagination of the British Isles, perhaps because for ages bread and butter was a staple for much of the population? So to leave off the butter when making a sandwich would require an active intervention.

    Certainly butter is essential to a chip butty, since its principal glory consists in the hot chips melting the butter into the bread, creating a fluffy, starchtastic bun of love.

    August 1, 2008

  • Long live the Empire, yarb!

    August 1, 2008

  • Trivet: If I'm making toast and intend to put either jam or peanut butter on it, I won't put butter on it first.

    Nice try though. ;)

    Yarb: thanks for the explanation. Would you please now add to the Wordie archives, for the benefit of our posterity and Wordieternity, the delightful—nay, ambrosiac—phrase fluffy starchtastic bun of love? Thank you in advance for your kind attention to this most serious matter.

    August 1, 2008

  • Interesting - cold or room temperature butter/bread/strange British filling combinations freak me out, but raspberry jam on hot buttered toast is a symphony of deliciousness.

    August 1, 2008

  • You really need the butter on toast with jelly/jam. Then you take a corner and dip it ever so quickly into your hot tea and bite it off before it turns to mush! Yum!

    I think the peanutbutter could hold its own on bread without butter as it already is kind of oily. But, a bit of butter couldn't hurt.

    August 1, 2008

  • I was with you right up until the tea-dipping, dc.

    *hork*

    August 1, 2008

  • I'll have to try that dontcry, although I've never been much of a dunker. Have to make sure the tea is unsweetened, since it's going to be suffused with jam by the end.

    August 1, 2008

  • I know, it sounds gross -- but the trick is in the lightening fast dunk -- just enough to impart a bit of tea flavor and warmth to the very tip...

    August 1, 2008

  • I'm decidedly antidunk. Soggy food is an abomination.

    August 1, 2008

  • Wet bread is indeed what I hate. I'm with you there. EXCEPT when dunking toast with BUTTER ONLY into hot, sweetened tea with milk.

    I'm very particular. Never any jam or jelly on dunkable toast. That makes it undunkable. Never hot tea WITHOUT both milk and sugar. That is undunkinable.

    Black tea. Hot. Milk. Sugar (at least two heaping teaspoons).

    plus

    Bread (of whatever kind, as long as it's sliced), toasted on both sides. Buttered or margarined.

    equals

    pure dunkability.

    The butter/margarine imparts a delicious sheen of grease to the tea. (This tendency, incidentally, is why I wouldn't dunk jammed or jellied toast into it.)

    DC has made a very important point: lightning-fast dunking speed. Once the crispy toasted corner of bread enters the hot sweetened tea, you can't hesitate for a yoctosecond or the thing will disintegrate and cause a heaping pile of soggy crumbs at the bottom.

    And now that I've thoroughly grossed out even myself, I hereby resolve that one day, I'll eat a piece of bread--or at least toast--with both butter and jam on it. In yarb's honor.

    August 1, 2008

  • Yes, yes, yes! The bear gets it! I didn't mention the oil slick on top due to the hork factor -- but I loves it!

    I agree on the tea preparation (I like Earl Grey).

    We part ways on the subject of jelly (also, never margarine). I'd like to suggest that since I've done it without jelly (not as good...) you should pony up and try it with jelly. It won't kill you.

    To the rest of you -- TRY IT! Why, I bet all of you are eating (and doing) things today that you once thought were gross. Am I wrong? No, I'm not. Do it.

    August 1, 2008

  • Hey, I ate the damn Marmite after I watched two people practically gag on it....so there.

    August 1, 2008

  • *cracking up reading dontcry's third sentence*

    August 1, 2008

  • *steps down from tea & toast with jam box*

    August 1, 2008

  • The only thing I will dunk is a graham cracker into some Sunny D. *ducks head in shame*

    August 1, 2008

  • see also sugar butty.

    August 1, 2008

  • I...I...

    Oh, there's just too much to say. Plus I'm very hungry, for some reason.

    August 1, 2008

  • "...to leave off the butter when making a sandwich would require an active intervention" is simply exquisite. And being brought up in the Commonwealth, I understand. Although being a vegan I've had to get a bit funky with butter alternatives.

    August 1, 2008

  • Oh, I've seeeeeen sugar butty. Don't you worry about that. My mind is still reeling.

    Trivet! Graham crackers?! *sigh*

    August 1, 2008

  • I like crackers. What can I say?

    August 1, 2008

  • Graham crackers are excellent. Especially chocolate ones.

    August 1, 2008

  • chocolate graham crackers?

    August 1, 2008

  • Or even chocolate-covered ones.

    August 2, 2008

  • That's 2/3rd's of a s'more, rt!

    August 2, 2008

  • That's right--the best two-thirds.

    August 2, 2008

  • It's been years since I dunked, but if I did dunk, 'twould be Graham crackers in sweetened condensed milk.

    August 2, 2008

  • put it in Best of Weirdnet, already!

    July 18, 2009

  • It's a good effort from weirdnet but I don't think it qualifies as the best. High standards, you know. Why not start a list called "the second-best of weirdnet", and add it to that?

    July 18, 2009

  • hard to gather material for, mostly. and it's shameful to have a second-best list. anyway, teeth lives on in the conversations lists; the definition will not go unnoticed.

    July 18, 2009

  • I just spent some time with my grandfather--he was describing his cousin's easy life as being like "ham and jam." Has anyone else ever heard of that phrase (or that hork-worthy combination)?

    December 1, 2010

  • Never had the pleasure of ham and jam - ham today, jam tomorrow, that's my motto.

    December 1, 2010