colt's tooth

9.9

The first baby tooth of a young horse sometimes kept as a lucky charm

noun
/koʊlts tuθ/

: diente de potro

The stable hand carefully examined the colt's tooth he found in the straw.

Examples

The veterinarian explained that a colt's tooth is usually shed as the horse matures.
In rural folklore, a colt's tooth is often kept as a good luck charm.
I found a colt's tooth in the field!
The colt's tooth is considered a lucky charm.
In rural folklore, a colt's tooth is often kept as a good luck charm.
The stable hand carefully examined the colt's tooth he found in the straw.
The veterinarian explained that a colt's tooth is usually shed as the horse matures.

Synonyms

milk tooth

vscolt's tooth

1 3.4

One of a child's first teeth that falls out and is replaced by an adult tooth

is specific to young horses and often thought a rare lucky find

Surface Forms

colt's tooth singular

colt's teeth plural

Morphology

colt's + tooth

The core meaning — a tooth belonging to a colt — is directly and compositionally derived from 'colt' (young horse) + 'tooth' (biting structure). The folkloric idea of rarity or luck is a peripheral cultural detail and does not make the expression idiomatic, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents would grasp the basic meaning.

Etymology

The noun colt's tooth comes from a simple picture: a colt is a young horse and a tooth is its first baby tooth that it loses. In old country stories, finding a colt's tooth in the straw was rare, so people kept it as a charm for 'good luck'.