gnash one's teeth

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Idioms and Phrases

Express a strong emotion, usually rage, as in When Jonah found out he was not going to be promoted, he gnashed his teeth . This expression is actually redundant, since gnash means “to strike the teeth together.” Edmund Spenser used it in The Faerie Queene (1590): “And both did gnash their teeth.” [Late 1500s]

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April 25, 2024firkin

[fur-kin ]

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

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