Word.ws English Dictionary

tooth and tong

tooth and tong adverb: presenting a vigorous and unified opposition.

Adverb

tooth and tong (comparative more tooth and tong, superlative most tooth and tong)

  1. Presenting a vigorous and unified opposition.
    • In 1935, I think it was, when a number of Senators and Congressmen introduced grain alcohol bills similar to the one Senator Mundt and I have introduced—but we are told those bills were fought tooth and tong by the oil interests, hence never became law.1957, United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Agriculture and Forestry, Agricultural Situation and Farm Programs
    • Mrs. Meier, wife of the under sheriff at the jail, turned against me. And Duane West is one of my bitterest enemies. And they were sort of working tooth and tong.1973, Denis Brian, Murderers and Other Friendly People

Forms of tooth and tong

comparativemore tooth and tong
superlativemost tooth and tong

Origin of tooth and tong

Blend of tooth and nail + hammer and tongs.

Questions about tooth and tong

What does tooth and tong mean?
Tooth and tong means presenting a vigorous and unified opposition.
What part of speech is tooth and tong?
Tooth and tong is an adverb.

Words near tooth and tong in the dictionary

  1. Tootgarook
  2. tooth
  3. tooth and claw
  4. tooth and nail
  5. tooth and nail syndrome
  6. tooth and tong
  7. tooth comb
  8. tooth combs
  9. tooth decay
  10. tooth duller
  11. tooth dullers

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: tooth and tong (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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Cite this entry: “tooth and tong.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/tooth_and_tong. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.