toothing

1. 1
   noununcountable

   The act or process of cutting notches into an edge or fitting it with teeth.

   The toothing of the file determines how aggressively it cuts.

   Careful toothing along the rim turned the flat disc into a working saw.

   Similarnotching, serration

   Note

   Formed from tooth and -ing, so it is the noun that stays closest to the verb form: when someone is toothing a blade, the work itself is the toothing. It covers both cutting notches into an edge and fitting it with separate teeth. It can also name the finished result, as in the toothing of a file, which is why it takes a plural.

2. 2
   noununcountable

   The process of teeth growing in, especially an infant's first teeth.

   Her son's toothing brought weeks of restless nights.

   Pediatricians offer parents tips for easing the discomfort of toothing.

   Similarteething

3. 3
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of tooth.

   The craftsman was toothing the comb's spine by hand all afternoon.

   Toothing the blade properly takes patience and a steady hand.

   Note

   Beyond its transitive uses, such as toothing a blade or toothing an edge until it is jagged, the verb has an intransitive sense taken from gearing. Parts that lock into each other like gear wheels are said to tooth. In that case the participle has no object, and it describes two things meshing rather than one thing being cut.

4. 4
   noununcountable

   Bricks left alternately projecting at the end of a wall so that a continuation can be bonded into it when the rest is built up.

   The mason left toothing along the gable to tie in the future garden wall.

   Surveyors noted the toothing as evidence the terrace was always meant to extend.

   Note

   A mason's term for work deliberately left unfinished. The projecting bricks give a later section something to key into, so the new wall interlocks with the old instead of merely butting flat against it. Toothing left on a gable or a wall end is therefore a sign of intention: someone planned for that wall to continue.

5. 5
   noununcountable

   The pattern of teeth along a leaf margin, as seen in dentate, serrate, or crenate leaves.

   Botanists distinguish the species by the toothing of its leaves.

   Sharp toothing along the margin marked it as a serrate variety.

   Similarserration, dentation

   Note

   Botanists treat the teeth on a leaf's edge as a diagnostic character, sorted by their shape and the way they point. Dentate, serrate and crenate are named types of toothing, not synonyms for it. The word itself usually takes a descriptive adjective, as in sharp toothing or fine toothing, and it describes the margin as a whole rather than any single tooth.

6. 6
   noununcountable

   The tooth-like projections along the perforated edges of a stamp after it is separated from its sheet.

   An expert examines the toothing to judge whether a stamp was cleanly separated.

   Uneven toothing suggested the stamp had been torn rather than properly perforated.

   Note

   A collector's term, and one that matters at grading: philatelists look at how regular and intact the toothing is when they assess a specimen. The word names what is left behind, not the holes. Perforation is the row of punched holes in the sheet, and toothing is the ragged edge those holes leave once the stamp is torn free.

7. 7
   noununcountable

   The supposed use of Bluetooth-enabled phones or PDAs to arrange random sexual encounters, in fact a hoax meant to expose journalists' gullibility and poor fact-checking.

   Tabloids breathlessly reported that toothing had become a craze among young commuters.

   Within weeks, fact-checkers revealed that toothing had never actually happened.

   Note

   The name plays on Bluetooth, and the joke was the point: the hoax was built to see which reporters would repeat it without checking. The word kept circulating as if it named a real practice. Ulrike Bucher and Maro Finka's The Electronic City (2011) still describes it that way. Anyone using the word should make clear that the craze itself was invented.

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