gap-toothed

See also: gaptoothed

English

gap-toothed (sense 1)

Etymology

From Middle English gap tothed, gapt tothed (also gaptothe), alteration of earlier gat-tothed (literally “gate-toothed”), equivalent to gap +‎ toothed.

Adjective

gap-toothed (not comparable)

1. Exhibiting a gap between the teeth, especially between the two upper central incisors.
   • 1997, Sharon R. Sherman, Documenting Ourselves: Film, Video, and Culture, →ISBN, page 118:

     Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, another gap-toothed woman, appears in a clip from her address to the Salvation Army.

2. Exhibiting a gap where a tooth is missing, as of a child who has lost a baby tooth, or an adult who has lost a permanent tooth.
   • 2011, David F. Bjorklund, Carlos Hernández Blasi, Child & Adolescent Development: An Integrated Approach, →ISBN, pages 141–42:

     The gap-toothed grins of many 7- and 8-year-olds reflect the rapid loss of baby teeth and eruption of permanent teeth during the early school years, although children typically do not lose all of their primary teeth until they are about 12 years old.

   • 2012, Nicole Neatby, Peter Hodgins, Settling and Unsettling Memories: Essays in Canadian Public History‎^[1], →ISBN:

     Other slices of Canadian life included scenes of Niagara Falls, log-rolling, gap-toothed hockey players, and beer halls.

Synonyms

• diastematic
• gappy

Translations

having a gap between the front teeth

• Finnish: jolla on rako etuhampaiden välissä
• French: qui a les dents du bonheur
• Irish: grabach, mantach, scagfhiaclach, séanasach
• Polish: szczerbaty (pl)
• Russian: щерба́тый (ru) (ščerbátyj)

missing a tooth

• Irish: mantach, scagfhiaclach