sour tooth
- noun
- She satisfied her sour tooth with a handful of tart cherries after lunch.
Examples
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When it comes to snacks, his sour tooth means he always picks salt and vinegar chips.
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I have a sour tooth for pickles.
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If you have a sour tooth, you'll love this tangy lemonade.
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She loves her sour tooth cravings!
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If you have a sour tooth, you'll enjoy the sharp flavor of this tangy lemonade.
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After dinner, she curbed her sour tooth with some delicious lemon sorbet.
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His sour tooth led him to choose a slice of key lime pie for dessert.
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is based on a figurative/metonymic pattern (as in 'sweet tooth') where 'tooth' signals a taste preference; knowing 'sour' and 'tooth' makes the intended sense inferable for learners familiar with that pattern. However, the non-literal use of 'tooth' is idiomatic and not strictly compositional, so a B1 learner who does not already know the 'sweet tooth' pattern may not predict the meaning reliably.
Etymology
Sour tooth copies the image of sweet tooth, where tooth stands for a taste or strong liking. It paints a picture of a 'tooth' that wants sour things, so sour tooth means 'a liking' or 'a craving' for sour-flavoured foods.