cut one's teeth en · VERB
Pronunciation
- (Australia) audio
Meanings
-
(idiomatic) To begin; to gain early experience.
He cut his teeth on flying model airplanes as a child, so aeronautical engineering came naturally.
Born and raised outside Copenhagen, he studied at the Royal Danish Design School, later cutting his teeth in Paris under Pritzker Prize winner Jean Nouvel and in New York working for AD100 Hall of Famer Peter Marino.
2026 May 14, Sam Cochran, “Feeling Zen”, in Architectural Digest, volume 83, number 4, page 100:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| cutting one's teeth | Tense=Pres, VerbForm=Part | lexicographic | |
| cut one's teeth | Tense=Past, VerbForm=Part | lexicographic | |
| cut one's teeth | Tense=Past | lexicographic | |
| cuts one's teeth | Number=Sing, Person=3, Tense=Pres | lexicographic |
Relateds
cut one's eyeteeth · make one's bones
Translations (9)
fr faire ses dents (gain early experience) · it fare la gavetta (gain early experience) · pl zjeść zęby (gain early experience) · lv bērnam nāk zobi (gain early experience) · es hacer sus primeras armas (gain early experience) · fr se faire les dents sur ... (gain early experience) · fi aloittaa (gain early experience) · it farsi le ossa (gain early experience) · es hacer sus pinitos (gain early experience)