Green’s Dictionary of Slang

see separate entry.

(US black) a dentist’s surgery.

1947

M.H. Boulware Jive and Sl.

(Aus./US) the mouth.

1889		Nortonville News (KS) 20 Sept. 1/4: He tapped me on the storeroom with one hand [...] He gave me one on the tooth-box as I closed in.
1906		E. Dyson Fact’ry ’Ands 214: He was hurryin’ ’ome with ther quid he’d got advanced stuck in his tooth box.

(US) a dentist.

1839		Vicksburg Tri-Wkly Sentinel (MS) 16 Mar. 2/2: We regret to inform Patrick that the Doctor has left us [...] He was, at Vicksburg, a ‘tooth carpenter,’ as he facetiously styled himself.
1846		Freeman’s Journal 31 Oct. 137/2: How shocked the gentlemen aforesaid would be, if they heard, as we did the other day, one of their brethren, a dentist, called a ‘tooth-carpenter’ [DA].
1869		Latter-day Saints Millenial Star 26 June 425: The Pueblo Chieftain, published away out in Arkansas, rejoices in the arrival of a ‘tooth carpenter’ in that delectable village. An Eastern dentist would have to think twice before he would recognise himself under that designation.
1870		Perrysburg Jrnl (OH) 6 May 4/1: The dentist has received the title of ‘tusk-hoister’ and ‘tooth carpenter’.
1888		Chehalis Bee 18 May 3/4: Dr. Boyce, besides being a physician and druggist, is a ‘tooth carpenter’ [DA].
1906		J.W. Carr ‘Words from Northwest Arkansas’ in DN III:ii 162: tooth carpenter, n. Dentist.
1926		B.Q. Morgan ‘Simile and Metaphor in American Speech’ in AS I:5 273: ‘Tooth-carpenter’ for dentist.

(Aus.) a mouth organ.

1968

S. Gore Holy Smoke 41: Gawd, what about givin’ that tooth-harp of yours a bone?

(Aus.) a hearty eater.

1954		Barbed Wire and Bamboo (Sydney) Oct. 8: Rex, Trudy and Mrs Hearne admit to having seen some of the best in tooth men [AND].
1967		‘Whisper All Aussie Dict.’ in Kings Cross Whisper (Sydney) xli 4/4: tooth man: A good eater.
1972		A. Chipper Aussie Swearers Guide 43: Tooth Merchant. Eater (of enviable capacity).
1992		R.G. Barrett White Shoes 2: Being a good tooth man, Les didn’t mind the veal bakony, the potato latkes [etc.].

1. verbal abuse.

c.1786

Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue ms. additions n.p.: Tooth Musick. Jaw. Abuse.

2. chewing (audibly).

1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (3rd edn).
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1859		Matsell Vocabulum 91: tooth music chewing food with a good appetite.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 87: Tooth Music, chewing food with a good appetite, e.g., children eating apples.

see separate entries.

(N.Z. prison) ab extremely thorough search of one’ cell.

2001

D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 191/1: tooth and nail n. an extremely thorough cell-check.

1. to desire, usu. sexually.

1590		T. Lodge Rosalynde 136: I have a longing tooth, a longing tooth that makes me crie.
1667		R. L’Estrange (trans.) Visions of Quevedo’s (1904) 201: You still [...] have an aching tooth at those poor varlets.

2. to be angry with.

1731

Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. n.p.: To have an aking tooth at one, to be angry at, to have a mind to rebuke or chastise one.

to come straight to the point; also in negative, not put a tooth in it.

1938		S. MacManus Rocky Road to Dublin 246: The older Masters were yet truly, even if condescendingly, kind to him [...] Without putting a tooth in it, they admired him .
1996		RTÉ news 17 June I am afraid, not to put a tooth in it, that the confidence in the RUC is lower than it has been any time in the last twenty years [BS].

(Aus.) to refrain from criticism.

1949

R. Park Poor Man’s Orange 143: But the moment for accusation had gone, and she said humbly, ‘I’m sorry I didn’t put a tooth on it, Charlie. You were a good husband to Roie [...] It’s just that I’m all on edge.’.

see under sweet adj.¹

the vagina.

1999

Roger’s Profanisaurus in Viz 98 Oct. 28: toothless gibbon n. See clapping fish.