gap-toothed

adj — 2 senses

gap-toothed

adj

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

1

Exhibiting a gap between the teeth, especially between the two upper central incisors.

  • Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, another gap-toothed woman, appears in a clip from her address to the Salvation Army.1997, Sharon R. Sherman, Documenting Ourselves: Film, Video, and Culture, →ISBN, page 118:
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.

  • 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.2011, David F. Bjorklund, Carlos Hernández Blasi, Child & Adolescent Development: An Integrated Approach, →ISBN, pages 141–42:
  • Other slices of Canadian life included scenes of Niagara Falls, log-rolling, gap-toothed hockey players, and beer halls.2012, Nicole Neatby, Peter Hodgins, Settling and Unsettling Memories: Essays in Canadian Public History, →ISBN:
Synonyms
diastematic, gappy

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.