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pull teeth

verb — 2 senses

pull teeth

verb
1

Dentistry, Medicine, Sciences To extract teeth, usually because they are decayed or damaged.

2

Idiomatic To do something that is especially difficult or effortful.

  • You will probably have to pull teeth to get a straight answer from a car salesman.
  • “We thought there would be a mad rush of students participating in these events, and it was like pulling teeth to get students to come out,” she recalled.2022 October 7, Emma Goldberg, “The Job Market Has Been Like Musical Chairs. Will the Music Stop?”, in The New York Times:

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