tooth

Etymology

From Middle English tothe, toth, tooth, from Old English tōþ (“tooth”), from Proto-West Germanic *tanþ, from Proto-Germanic *tanþs (“tooth”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₃dónts (“tooth”). Related to tusk. Doublet of dent, dens, tind, and tine. Cognates: Cognate with Scots tuth, tuith (“tooth”), North Frisian toth, tos (“tooth”), Dutch tand (“tooth”), German Zahn (“tooth”), Danish tand (“tooth”), Swedish tand (“tooth”), Norwegian tann (“tooth”), Icelandic tönn (“tooth”), Welsh dant (“tooth”), Latin dēns (“tooth”), Lithuanian dantìs (“tooth”), Ancient Greek ὀδούς (odoús)/ὀδών (odṓn, “tooth”), Armenian ատամ (atam), Persian دندان (dandân), Sanskrit दत् (dát), दन्त (danta, “tooth”).

noun

1. A hard, calcareous structure present in the mouth of many vertebrate animals, generally used for eating.
2. A sharp projection on the blade of a saw or similar implement.
3. A projection on the edge of a gear that meshes with similar projections on adjacent gears, or on the circumference of a cog that engages with a chain.
4. Of a rope, the stickiness when in contact with another rope as in a knot.
   Jute has more tooth than polypropylene.
5. (zoology) A projection or point in other parts of the body resembling the tooth of a vertebrate animal.
   Species XXXVI. Obliquaria bullata— (Unio bullata) […] Found at the falls of Ohio; rare; breadth almost two inches; cardinal and lamellar teeth like preceding species; apices rounded, decorticated, but not truncated 1832, Constantine Samuel Rafinesque, A monograph of the fluviatile bivalve shells of the river Ohio, page 43
6. (botany) A pointed projection from the margin of a leaf.
7. (animation) The rough surface of some kinds of cel or other films that allows better adhesion of artwork.
8. (figurative) Liking, fondness (compare toothsome).
   I have a sweet tooth: I love sugary treats.
   These are not dishes for thy dainty tooth 1693, John Dryden, “The Third Satire of Aulus Persius Flaccus”, in The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis
9. (algebraic geometry) An irreducible component of a comb that intersects the handle in exactly one point, that point being distinct from the unique point of intersection for any other tooth of the comb.

verb

1. To provide or furnish with teeth.
   His Wife sate near him, teasing matted wool, / While, from the twin cards toothed with glittering wire / He fed the spindle […] 1815, William Wordsworth, The Brothers
2. To indent; to jag.
   to tooth a saw
3. To lock into each other, like gear wheels.
   Whereas if the Header of one side of the wall, toothed as much as the Stretcher on the other side, it would be a stronger Toothing, and the joints of the Header on one side, would be in the middle of the Headers of the course they lie upon of the other side 1678, Joseph Moxon, Mechanick Exercises: or the Doctrine of Handy-works, page 260