faire ses dents
Meaning: A baby is teething and developing their first teeth.
Language: French
Literally: to make one's teeth
Category: Body & Senses
Origin: Plainly literal in its first sense: an infant's first teeth pushing through the gums, from Latin dentire, to grow teeth, the verb behind dentitio and the modern dentition. The figurative sense — someone or something new, still cutting its teeth on a task — rides on the same discomfort every set of new teeth causes on the way in: painful, disruptive, and unavoidable if the thing is ever going to be able to bite into anything at all.
More idioms — Body & Senses
- avoir le compas dans l'oeil — Having excellent judgment of distance, measurement, or proportion.
- avoir les pieds qui démangent — Wanting to travel or move to a different place.
- avoir une peur bleue — Being terrified or extremely frightened of something.
- avoir des étoiles dans les yeux — Being dreamy, hopeful, or enchanted by romantic ideals.
- avere un diavolo per capello — Be extremely angry or agitated, ready to argue with anyone about anything.
- 종로에서 뺨 맞고 한강 가서 눈 흘긴다 (Jongno-eseo ppyam matgo Hangang gaseo nun heulginda) — Venting frustration on innocent people due to humiliation elsewhere; displaced anger towa…
More French idioms
- faire la soupe à la grimace — Complaining or grumbling about something constantly.
- être aux petits soins — Receiving attentive, careful treatment and consideration from someone.
- montrer les dents — Displaying aggression, defiance, or readiness to fight.
- avoir les yeux plus gros que le ventre — Taking more food than one can actually eat; wanting too much.
- faire un esclandre — Creating a public disturbance or embarrassing scene.
- être un ours — Being unfriendly, grumpy, and difficult to approach socially.
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