English Idioms & Idiomatic Expressions
Body idioms
Tooth - Teeth
| by the skin of one's teeth | If you manage to do
something by the skin of your teeth,
you succeed in doing it but you almost fail. The traffic was so heavy I thought I'd miss the train, but I caught it by the skin of my teeth. |
| grit your teeth | When you are
determined to do something in spite of the
difficulties involved, you grit your
teeth. To reach safety I had to grit my teeth and wade through the mud. |
| lie through your teeth | If you lie
through your teeth, you lie openly and
brazenly, knowing that what you are saying
is completely false. I saw him breaking the window. If he denies it, he's lying through his teeth. |
| like pulling teeth | Something that is like pulling teeth
is extremely difficult to obtain, especially
if trying to extract information from
someone. Getting him to talk about his job was like pulling teeth! |
| sink one's teeth into | If you sink
your teeth into something, you do it
with a lot of energy and enthusiasm. When Julie got promoted, she immediately sank her teeth into her new job. |
| sweet tooth | Someone who has
a sweet tooth enjoys eating sweet
things like sugar, pastries, chocolate, etc. She'll be delighted if you bring her chocolates - she's got a sweet tooth. |
| teeth chattering | If your teeth
are chattering, you are extremely cold. Was I cold? My teeth were chattering! |
| teething problems | The difficulties
encountered during the initial stage of an
activity or project are called teething
problems. We had some teething problems when we first opened the bookshop, but now everything is okay. |