Posted by R. Berg on January 13, 2001
In Reply to: Re: Long in the tooth posted by ESC on January 13, 2001
: : What does "long in the tooth" mean. I alwasy thought it meant ugly.
: "Long in the tooth" means old. It refers to the fact that one can determine a horse's age by looking at its teeth. A horse's gums recede as it ages causing its teeth to look "long."
And it is from this same fact that we get "Don't look a gift horse in the mouth." Two phrases explained for the price of one!