• Toothly

    Origin

    From tooth + -ly. Compare toothlike, teethlike, toothily.

    Full definition of toothly

    Adjective

    toothly

    1. Of or pertaining to teeth; dental.
      • 1907, The Bay State monthly:For, firstly, the membership of these societies is limited; arid "toothly," as the colored preacher said, one blackball will keep out any one.
      • 1998, Sheila De La Rosa, The Encyclopedia of Weird:Peter stored his toothly treasures in a beautiful wooden case. Each tooth was secured to its own little compartment with a gray silk ribbon looped around it.
    2. Toothy.
      • 1997, Kalpana Swaminathan, Cryptic death and other stories:'I see you're admiring our decor,' the man said with a toothly smile, and Paresh noticed that his canines bit wolfishly into his thick mulberry lip.
      • 2010, Robert Crudup, Malachi Moon: Journey of a Bluesman:She returned a toothly grin that displayed her deep, pretty dimples.

    Adverb

    toothly

    1. In a manner regarding teeth; dentally.
      • 1934, Popular science talks: Volume 12:Toothly speaking then — it pays to stay savage. There is evidence too, that civilizations long before ours felt the stress of dental cares.

    Synonyms

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