cut one's teeth

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU)

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Verb

cut one's teeth (third-person singular simple present cuts one's teeth, present participle cutting one's teeth, simple past and past participle cut one's teeth)

1. (idiomatic) To begin; to gain early experience.

   He cut his teeth flying model airplanes as a child, so aeronautical engineering came naturally.

Translations

gain early experience

• French: faire ses dents (fr) (to begin), se faire les dents sur ... (fr) (to gain early experience on ...)
• Italian: farsi le ossa
• Latvian: bērnam nāk zobi
• Spanish: hacer sus pinitos, hacer sus primeras armas

See also

• cut one's eyeteeth
• make one's bones