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Glite Dictionary
to bare one's teeth

to bare one's teeth

7.2
Show your teeth to look angry and warn someone
  • idiom
  • Informal
translation icon : enseñar los dientes
  • Don't bare your teeth at me!

Examples

  • During the heated argument, Julia suddenly bared her teeth and raised her voice.

  • When threatened, many animals will bare their teeth to warn off intruders.

  • If you keep provoking him, he's likely to bare his teeth and retaliate.

  • Did the dog really bare its teeth at you?

  • The dog growled and bared its teeth when it saw the stranger approaching.

  • In a defensive stance, the wolf bared its teeth to warn the intruder to stay away.

  • When provoked, the usually calm cat bared its teeth to show its aggression.

Synonyms

to sneer
vsto bare one's teeth
39 5.6

Smile or speak to show you do not respect someone

is a clear hostile warning showing aggression rather than mere contempt
to snarl
vsto bare one's teeth
21 5.8

To say something in an angry, sharp voice

is mainly a visible aggressive warning rather than only angry speech
to bristle up
vsto bare one's teeth
7.9

Show sudden anger, often by becoming tense in the face or voice

is a threatening display focused on hostility rather than general sudden anger

Antonyms

to smile
∞ 1.0

To turn the corners of your mouth up to show happiness or friendliness

How Threatening

lunge
4 4.9
to bare one's teeth
  • Informal
7.2
snarl
9 4.9
to glare
49 3.2

Surface Forms

bare one's teeth infinitive
bared one's teeth past
bared one's teeth past participle
bearing one's teeth present participle
bears one's teeth third person singular

Morphology

bare + one's + teeth

The meaning is directly built from 'bare' (to reveal) + 'teeth' (the teeth), so a learner who knows those words can infer it literally means to reveal one's teeth. The pragmatic extension to signal aggression or warning is a natural, cross-linguistic inference (cf. 'show one's teeth'), making the expression immediately understandable to B1 learners.

Etymology

Bare one's teeth comes from animals that pull back their lips to bare their teeth when they are angry or feel threatened. So the phrase now means 'to show anger or warn someone'.