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Usenet Posted 22 years ago
Usage

Etymology of "lie through your teeth"

I've been scouring on- and off-line dictionaries of slang, idiom, phrase and fable and quotations, but have been unable to find an etymology/first usage for "lie through your teeth". Someone used the phrase the other day and it struck me for the first time how odd it is.
Can anyone point me in the right direction?
David Bradbury
  

Top answer

[nq:1]I've been scouring on- and off-line dictionaries of slang, idiom, phrase and fable and quotations, but have been unable to ... struck me for the first time how odd it is. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

  • [nq:1]I've been scouring on- and off-line dictionaries of slang, idiom, phrase and fable and quotations, but have been unable to ...
  • struck me for the first time how odd it is.
  • Can anyone point me in the right direction?
  • David Bradbury[/nq] Lying through one's teeth means that the person is able to smile while lying.
  • There's also "TO LIE IN ONE'S TEETH".
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5 Answers
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[nq:1]I've been scouring on- and off-line dictionaries of slang, idiom, phrase and fable and quotations, but have been unable to ... struck me for the first time how odd it is. Can anyone point me in the right direction? David Bradbury[/nq]
Lying through one's teeth means that the person is able to smile while lying. There's also "TO LIE IN ONE'S TEETH". It is very old, traceable to the
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[nq:2]I've been scouring on- and off-line dictionaries of slang, idiom, ... Can anyone point me in the right direction? David Bradbury[/nq]
[nq:1]Lying through one's teeth means that the person is able to smile while lying. There's also "TO LIE IN ONE'S ... THE ROMANCES OF SIR GUY OF WARWICK, "Thou liest amidward and therefore have thou maugreth (shown ill will)." See:
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[nq:2]It is very old, traceable to the early 1300's as ... liest amidward and therefore have thou maugreth (shown ill will)."[/nq]
(snip other interpretations)
[nq:1](Note "thou maugrest" seems more likely than "thou maugreth"; but the expression is in keeping with Chaucer's "maugre" meaning "despite".)[/nq]
If it was a verb and if it was in the present tense, yeah. But there's an auxi
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[nq:1](snip other interpretations)[/nq]
[nq:2](Note "thou maugrest" seems more likely than "thou maugreth"; but the expression is in keeping with Chaucer's "maugre" meaning "despite".)[/nq]
[nq:1]If it was a verb and if it was in the present tense, yeah. But there's an auxiliary in there, "have," so if it's a verb, I'd expect it to be a participle.[/nq]
A good point: very bad reading o
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[nq:1]I've been scouring on- and off-line dictionaries of slang, idiom, phrase and fable and quotations, but have been unable to ... and it struck me for the first time how odd it is. Can anyone point me in the right direction?[/nq]
No, but I can point out similar idioms:
"To lie in one's throat," to lie flatly or abominably. See

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