tooth

tooth [to͞oth; ] for v., also [ to͞oth]

n.

pl. teeth [tēth] [ME < OE toth (< * tanth), akin to Ger zahn < IE * edont- (< base * ed-, to eat) > L dens (gen. dentis), Gr odous (gen. odontos)]

1.

a) any of a set of hard, bonelike structures set in the jaws of most vertebrates and used for biting, tearing, and chewing: a tooth consists typically of a sensitive, vascular pulp surrounded by dentin and coated on the crown with enamel and on the root with cementum: normally 32 are in the permanent set and 20 in the deciduous set of a human

b) any of various analogous processes in invertebrates

c) [pl.] DENTURE (sense 2)

2. something resembling a tooth; toothlike part, as on a saw, fork, rake, gearwheel, etc.; tine, prong, cog, etc.

3. appetite or taste for something specified: now only in SWEET TOOTH

4. something that bites, pierces, or gnaws like a tooth [the teeth of the storm]

5. a rough surface, as on paper, metal, etc.

6. [pl.] a sound or effective means of enforcing something [to put teeth into a law]

7. Bot. any small, pointed lobe, as of a leaf or of the fringe surrounding the opening of a capsule in mosses

vt.

1. to provide with teeth

2. to make jagged; indent

vi.

to mesh, or become interlocked, as gears: For phrases using teeth, see TEETH

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long in the tooth

elderly; old

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tooth and nail

with all one's strength or resources

toothless

adj.

SYN.- TOOTH is the general, inclusive word (see the definition above); TUSK refers to a long, pointed, enlarged tooth projecting outside the mouth in certain animals, as the elephant, wild boar, and walrus, and used for digging or as a weapon; FANG refers either to one of the long, sharp teeth with which meat-eating animals tear their prey or to the long, hollow tooth through which poisonous snakes inject their venom