Word.ws English Dictionary

sowing dragon's teeth

sowing dragon's teeth is the present participle and gerund of sow dragon's teeth.

Meaning of sow dragon's teeth

Verb

sow dragon's teeth (third-person singular simple present sows dragon's teeth, present participle sowing dragon's teeth, simple past sowed dragon's teeth, past participle sown dragon's teeth or sowed dragon's teeth)

  1. (idiomatic) To perform an action that inadvertently leads to trouble.
    • The dragon's teeth are sown, Baby Charles; I pray God they bearna their armed harvest in your day, if I suld^([sic]) not live to see it. God forbid I should, for there will be an awful day's kemping at the shearing of them.1822 May 29, [Walter Scott], chapter XXVII, in The Fortunes of Nigel. […], volume III (in English), Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson...
  2. (idiomatic) To perform an action that is intended to prevent trouble, but which may actually bring it about.

Questions about sowing dragon's teeth

What is sowing dragon's teeth the present participle and gerund of?
Sowing dragon's teeth is the present participle and gerund of sow dragon's teeth.

Words near sowing dragon's teeth in the dictionary

  1. Soweto
  2. sowfoot
  3. sowgelder
  4. sowgelders
  5. sowing
  6. sowing dragon's teeth
  7. sowing one's oats
  8. sowing one's wild oats
  9. sowing the seeds of
  10. sowings
  11. sowins

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: sowing dragon's teeth (page history and authors); sow dragon's teeth (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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