arm to the teeth

English

Verb

arm to the teeth

1. (idiomatic) To equip thoroughly with weapons.
   • 1809, Washington Irving, Knickerbocker's History of New York, ch. 33:

     There, on the ramparts of the forts, stood Nicholas Koorn, armed to the teeth, flourishing a brass-hilted sword.

   • 1910, H. Rider Haggard, Queen Sheba's Ring, ch. 15:

     Who can murmur sweet nothings to his adored when two soldiers armed to the teeth have been instructed never to let him out of their sight?

   • 2009 May 25, Michael Schuman, "Building Bridges to China," Time:

     Both sides armed the Taiwan Strait to the teeth, turning it into one of Asia's most dangerous military flash points.

Translations

to equip with weapons

• French: armer jusqu'aux dents (fr)
• German: bis an die Zähne bewaffnet sein (de)
• Greek: οπλίζω σαν αστακό (el) (oplízo san astakó) (cf. οπλισμένος σαν αστακός (el) (oplisménos san astakós) (free translation: armed like a lobster))
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: væpnet til tennene (nb)

• Polish: uzbroić po zęby (pl)
• Russian: вооружить до зубов (ru) (vooružít’ do zubóv) pf.
• Serbo-Croatian: наоружати до зуба (sh) (naoružati do zuba)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.

Translations to be checked

• Catalan: armat fins les dents
• Dutch: tot de tanden gewapend
• Finnish: hampaisiin asti aseistautunut

• Slovene: do zob oborožen