What does toothing mean?
Toothing is an informal British and Irish noun for a toothache, usually understood as pain in or around a tooth. Its ordinary use is conversational: someone may say that a cold has given them “a bit of toothing,” or describe severe toothing that has prevented sleep. The word can also have the more formal, less frequent sense of the process of developing and erupting teeth, especially in reference to babies; in that sense it is closely associated with dentition. Toothing is therefore unusual in carrying both a familiar name for a common ailment and a technical-sounding label for a natural stage of development. Its sound may suggest a mild or childish complaint, so it is not normally used in formal medical writing. The standard modern term for the painful condition is toothache, but toothing survives in regional and informal speech, where it can sound warmer and less clinical than the formal expression.
nounAn informal noun for a toothache. Less commonly, it means the process of developing and erupting teeth, especially in babies.
- Toothache; pain in or around a tooth.
- The process of developing and erupting teeth; dentition.
"The cold has given me a bit of toothing."
"The cold has given me a bit of toothing."
"The baby's toothing kept the household awake."
Rare and usually unnecessary, because toothing is normally used as a mass noun.
"The dentist treated two separate toothings during the same visit."
Toothing sounds like a cheerful activity, but in informal British usage it is simply another name for a toothache.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of toothing
The English noun toothing was formed from tooth plus the suffix -ing, which here creates a noun denoting a condition or process. The word has been used both for toothache and for the coming of teeth, or dentition. English tooth belongs to a wider Indo-European family of dental terms represented in borrowed Latin-rooted words such as dental, dentist, and dentate.
Related word forms
How toothing is actually used
The toothache sense is chiefly informal and common in British and Irish English. The sense referring to the development of teeth is more formal and much less frequent.