to teethe
7
4.4
To start growing the first teeth in a baby or young animal
- verb
- /tiːð/
:
salir los dientes
- Tyler is teething, poor thing, and it's terrible, you know... because he's not sleeping, I'm not sleeping.
- a baby is teething
Examples
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He's teething.
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She's teething.
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This helps them to teethe with little discomfort.
Academic text (1996) -
I think he is teething.
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Hey, you know, uh, when you were teething, you never cried.
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Bill might not want to spend a whole week on his own with the twins, now that they're walking, talking, and teething.
Fiction book (2001) -
He was teething.
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When my nephew was teething, he'd teeth on her pinky and it left a bruise.
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My baby is teething, and she often wakes up at night because of the discomfort.
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He is teething, which makes him fussy and clingy during the day.
Surface Forms
Etymology
The word teethe comes from an old English word for tooth and teeth, so it literally means 'to grow teeth'. That's why we use teethe for babies or young animals when their first teeth come in and they often chew things or become fussy.