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set one's teeth on edge
- Something that one finds intensely irritating may be said to “set one's teeth on edge”: “The mayor's sexist remark set my teeth on edge.”
Idioms and Phrases
Irritate, annoy, make one cringe, as in That raucous laugh sets my teeth on edge . This expression alludes to the shuddering feeling evoked by a grating noise or similar irritation. It appears in several books of the Bible and was also used by Shakespeare. [c. 1600]Example Sentences
It was a noise that set one’s teeth on edge and bristled the hair at the back of one’s neck.
Five different shades of red on the same hat are enough to set one's teeth on edge.
"It does set one's teeth on edge," agreed the chevalier.
Even the leathery, grim old face of Ned Saddler relaxed into a pleasant expression at the sound of it, though 'twas against his will to allow himself to show anything of happiness he felt; for he was much like a small, tart winter apple, wholesome and sound at heart, yet sour enough to set one's teeth on edge.
Examples of Hebrew idiom that have become English via the Bible include: "to set one's teeth on edge", "by the skin of one's teeth", "the land of the living" and "from strength to strength".
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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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