| 释义 |
set one's teeth on edge, to set someone's teeth on edge 1. Fig. [for a scraping sound] to irritate someone's nerves. That noise sets my teeth on edge! Tom's teeth were set on edge by the incessant screaming of the children. 2. Fig. [for a person or an idea] to upset someone very much. Her overbearing manner usually sets my teeth on edge. The very thought of doing that set her teeth on edge.See also: edge, on, set, teethset one's teeth on edgeIrritate, 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] See also: edge, on, set, teethset one's teeth on edge, toTo irritate or annoy intensely. This image evokes the intense shuddering feeling that comes from biting on a piece of tinfoil or hearing a fingernail scratch on a chalkboard. It appears in several books of the Bible (Jeremiah 31:29; Ezekiel 18:2) and, graphically, in Shakespeare’s Henry VI, Part 1: “I had rather hear a brazen canstick turn’d, Or a dry wheel grate on the axle-tree, And that would set my teeth nothing on edge, Nothing so much as mincing poetry.”See also: on, set, teeth |