Word.ws English Dictionary

kick in the teeth

kick in the teeth noun: 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.

Noun

kick in the teeth (plural kicks in the teeth)

  1. (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.
    • 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
    • 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

kick in the teeth meaning in Bengali

kick in the teeth in Bengali

একটি শক্তিশালী প্রত্যাখ্যান

Synonyms of kick in the teeth

Forms of kick in the teeth

pluralkicks in the teeth

Words formed from kick in the teeth

Questions about kick in the teeth

What does kick in the teeth mean?
Kick in the teeth means 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.
What is kick in the teeth in Bengali?
Kick in the teeth in Bengali is একটি শক্তিশালী প্রত্যাখ্যান. See Kick in the teeth meaning in Bengali.
What part of speech is kick in the teeth?
Kick in the teeth is a noun.
What is the plural of kick in the teeth?
The plural of kick in the teeth is kicks in the teeth.

Words near kick in the teeth in the dictionary

  1. kick in
  2. kick in the balls
  3. kick in the bollocks
  4. kick in the butt
  5. kick in the pants
  6. kick in the teeth
  7. kick into the long grass
  8. kick into touch
  9. kick it
  10. kick like a mule
  11. kick loose

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: kick in the teeth (page history and authors); kick in the teeth (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-kick in the teeth.ogg.

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