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Glite Dictionary
⚙️ Making gear teeth 🧱 Wall notches 🦷 Growing first teeth
toothing

toothing

9.6
A row of notches at the edge of a wall to join new bricks
  • noun
  • Specialized
translation icon : dientes de sierra
  • After constructing the first section, the mason left toothing on the edge to connect with the upcoming structure.

Examples

  • It was the same red brick with limestone windowsills and limestone toothing stones that comprised Masters and the old Chemistry Hall, not to mention Ericson.

    Fiction book (1991)

  • The arch of my doorway still stood, and by holding onto the toothing stones, I managed to reach its top.

    Fiction book (1994)

  • The builder marked the wall with toothing to ensure proper alignment for the next layer of bricks.

  • The ancient castle featured toothing along its walls, which revealed how it was designed to be expanded.

How Notched

dovetail joint
  • Specialized
1 6.6
toothing
  • Specialized
9.6
notched
3.9

Surface Forms

toothing singular
toothings plural

Morphology

toothing = tooth (semi-transparent) = tooth + ing

The form is built from tooth + -ing, but the masonry meaning is a specialized extension referring to tooth-like projections rather than a fully regular everyday derivation.

Etymology

Toothing comes from tooth 'a small pointed piece' plus the ending -ing. Builders call the short notches left at the end of a wall 'toothing' because they look like a row of teeth and make it easy to join new bricks to the old wall.