[tooth] n, pl teeth [ME, fr. OE toth; akin to OHG zand tooth, L dent-, dens, Gk odont-, odous] (bef. 12c) 1 a: one of the hard bony appendages that are borne on the jaws or in many of the lower vertebrates on other bones in the walls of the mouth or pharynx and serve esp. for the prehension and mastication of food and as weapons of offense and defense b: any of various usu. hard and sharp processes esp. about the mouth of an invertebrate
2: taste, liking
3: a projection resembling or suggesting the tooth of an animal in shape, arrangement, or action "a saw ~": as a: any of the regular projections on the circumference or sometimes the face of a wheel that engage with corresponding projections on another wheel esp. to transmit force: cog b: a small sharp-pointed marginal lobe or process on a plant
4. a: something that injures, tortures, devours, or destroys b pl: effective means of enforcement
5: a roughness of surface produced by mechanical or artificial means -- tooth.like adj -- in the teeth of 1: in or into direct contact or collision with "found themselves sailing in the teeth of a hurricane --Current Biog."
2: in direct opposition to "rule had ... been imposed by conquest in the teeth of obstinate resistance --A. J. Toynbee" -- to the teeth : fully, completely "armed to the teeth"