kick in the teeth en · NOUN
Pronunciation
- (Australia) audio
Meanings
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(idiomatic) A humiliating insult or instance of bad treatment, especially when one is expecting friendship or in need of support; a sudden and unexpected setback; a strong rebuff.
King had remarked after the bill failed that a lot of people had lost faith in America; Roy Wilkins had said, “This defeat was a kick in the teeth to the civil rights effort.”
1998, Annetta Louise Gomez-Jefferson, In Darkness with God: The Life of Joseph Gomez, a Bishop in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, page 331:She had found her niche by being truant from school, giving people a bad time, and basically giving her parents' strict moral values a good, strong kick in the teeth.
2006, Kevin Leman, Sex Begins in the Kitchen: Creating Intimacy to Make Your Marriage Sizzle, page 119:This kick in the teeth, brutal under any circumstances, is more so, given Matoussem Ramoud's gentle, trusting nature and his infatuation with America.
1996, Evelyn Shakir, “Arab-American Literature”, in Alpana Sharma Knippling, editor, New Immigrant Literatures in the United States: A Sourcebook to Our Multicultural Literary Heritage, page 13:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| kicks in the teeth | Number=Plur | lexicographic |
Deriveds
better than a kick in the teeth