long in the tooth en · ADJ
Pronunciation
Etymology
Possibly from the practice of examining the length of horses’ teeth when estimating their ages: an old horse has long, rectangular incisors, and their occlusion angle is steep. Compare don't look a gift horse in the mouth.
Meanings
-
(idiomatic) Old; aged.
There were four relatively-fast, modern cruisers, the Oleg, Aurora, Zhemchug, and Izumrud... aaand the Dmitrii Donskoi, which was twenty-one years old and getting a bit long in the tooth.
2019 March 13, Drachinifel, 10:25 from the start, in The Russian 2nd Pacific Squadron - Voyage of the Damned, archived from the original on 16 Dec 2022:So as Microsoft began its 30th year last month, investors wondered whether it's a little long in the tooth.
2004 May 10, Chris Taylor, “Is Microsoft A Slowpoke?”, in Time, archived from the original on 06 Apr 2008:For those who are interested, Deaton (1992) remains the best (and most readable) single introduction to the empirics of the canonical permanent income model, though it's now a bit long in the tooth.
2024, Jeremy B. Rudd, A Practical Guide to Macroeconomics, page 47:His cousin was now of more than middle age. . . . She was lean, and yellow, and long in the tooth.
1852, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 2, in The History of Henry Esmond, Esq.:
Relateds
make old bones · don't look a gift horse in the mouth
Synonyms
on in years · wizened · over the hill
Translations (24)
fi vanha (old, aged) · ru ста́рый (old, aged) · pt antiquado (old, aged) · pt velhusco (old, aged) · pt velhote (old, aged) · hu megette a kenyere javát (old, aged) · it antiquato (old, aged) · it in là con gli anni (old, aged) · es ajado (old, aged) · pl stary (old, aged) · ru песо́к сыплется (old, aged) · fr défraîchi (old, aged) · ru пожило́й (old, aged) · de alt (old, aged) · pt ultrapassado (old, aged) · hu benne van a korban (old, aged) · it sbiadito (old, aged) · ca vell (old, aged) · fi vanhanaikainen (old, aged) · fi iäkäs (old, aged) · es rancio (old, aged) · pt entradote (old, aged) · fr blanchir sous le harnais (old, aged) · de in die Jahre gekommen (old, aged)