Forms: see prec. [f. prec.]
1. intr. To develop, grow, or ‘cut’ teeth; to teethe. ? Obs.
c. 1410. Master of Game, vii. (1904), 32/1. Þei tothen [pr. tochen; MS. Digby 182 teth] ii tymes in þe yere whan þei be whelpes.
c. 1440–1796. [see TOOTHING 1].
2. trans. To furnish or supply with teeth; to fit or fix teeth into; to cut teeth in or upon, to indent.
1483. Cath. Angl., 398/1. To Tuthe, dentare.
1523. Fitzherb., Husb., § 24. Than maye he … tothe the rakes with drye wethy wode.
1611. Shuttleworths’ Acc. (Chetham Soc.), 196. Making thre huckes and toothing nyne sicles, xvd.
1745. Arderon, in Phil. Trans., XLIV. 170. I toothed two Pieces of Brass … to fit each other.
1833, 1884. [see TOOTHING 3]. See also TOOTHED.
3. To exercise the teeth upon; to bite, gnaw. Also absol.
1579. Gosson, Sch. Abuse (Arb.), 19. The Syracusans vsed such varietie of dishes … they were many times in doubt, which they shoulde touth first, or taste last.
1858. H. W. Beecher, Life Th. (1859), 32. The pragmatic prophecy-monger and the swinish utilitarian have toothed its fruits and craunched its blossoms.
1871. R. Ellis, Catullus, xxiii. 4. Each for penury fit to tooth a flint-stone.
4. To fit or fix into something by projections like teeth, or in the manner of teeth. a. trans.
[1672: cf. TOOTHING 2 b.]
1703. T. N., City & C. Purchaser, 51. ’Tis common to Tooth in the stretching Course 2 Inches with the Stretcher only.
1793. W. H. Marshall, W. England (1796), II. 341. By toothing the one into the other … the whole settles … into one corporate mass.
1888. Law Rep., Weekly Notes, 77/1. The defendant … might use it … by putting a lean-to against it, or by toothing a door support into it.
b. intr. for pass. To interlock.
1703. Moxon, Mech. Exerc., 260. 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.
1865. Masson, Rec. Brit. Philos., 321. The one [mind] might have a conviction that it toothed at some points into the independent constitution of the other [matter].
