v. Forms: 5 teth, 8–9 teeth, 9 teethe. [f. teeth, pl. of TOOTH: there might also have been an OE. *téðan from *tanþjan; cf. BLEED, FEED.]
1. intr. To develop or ‘cut’ teeth. (Now only in pr. pple. and vbl. sb.: see TEETHING.)
c. 1410. Master of Game (MS. Digby 182), vi. lf. 17 b. Þei teth twyse in þe yere whan þei be wolres [v.r. whelpes].
1732. [see TEETHING vbl. sb. 1].
1755. Johnson, Teeth v. n., to breed teeth; to be at the time of dentition.
1865. Princess Alice, Mem., 11 Mar. (1884), 90. Victoria is teething, which makes her pale and poorly.
2. trans. To furnish with teeth, to set teeth in. Chiefly dial.
1775. in Ash.
1794. Burns, Song. O merry hae I been teethin’ a heckle, And merry hae I been shapin’ a spoon.
1832. W. A. Foster, in Minstrelsy Merse (1893), 153. Out through the mark the arrows flew, They teethed it like a harrow.
1865. E. Burritt, Walk Land’s End, 424. The cliffs that teeth the rift look as if they would shut into each other.
3. To ‘point’ (a wall, etc.) with lime or mortar.
1794. St. Acc. Scot., XI. 482. Stone walls teethed with lime.
Hence Teething ppl. a. (in sense 1).
1832. Marryat, N. Forster, xxiv. The teething infant.
1897. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., III. 761. Looseness of the bowels … common in teething infants.
