Meanings
- idiomaticOld; aged.
His cousin was now of more than middle age. . . . She was lean, and yellow, and long in the tooth.
1852, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 2, in The History of Henry Esmond, Esq.3 more examples
So as Microsoft began its 30th year last month, investors wondered whether it's a little long in the tooth.
2004 May 10, Chris Taylor, “Is Microsoft A Slowpoke?”, in Time, archived from the original on 06 Apr 2008There were four relatively-fast, modern cruisers, the Oleg, Aurora, Zhemchug, and Izumrud... aaand the Dmitrii Donskoi, which was twenty-one years old and getting a bit long in the tooth.
2019 March 13, Drachinifel, 10:25 from the start, in The Russian 2nd Pacific Squadron - Voyage of the Damned, archived from the original on 16 Dec 2022For those who are interested, Deaton (1992) remains the best (and most readable) single introduction to the empirics of the canonical permanent income model, though it's now a bit long in the tooth.
2024, Jeremy B. Rudd, A Practical Guide to Macroeconomics, page 47Synonyms: on in years, over the hill, wizened
Synonyms & antonyms
adjectiveOld; aged.
Origin
Possibly from the practice of examining the length of horses’ teeth when estimating their ages: an old horse has long, rectangular incisors, and their occlusion angle is steep. Compare don't look a gift horse in the mouth.
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Catalan vell
- vellold, aged
Finnish vanha, iäkäs
- vanhaold, aged
- iäkäsold, aged
- vanhanaikainenold, aged
French blanchir sous le harnais, défraîchi
- blanchir sous le harnaisold, aged
- défraîchiold, aged
German alt, in die Jahre gekommen
- altold, aged
- in die Jahre gekommenold, aged
Hungarian benne van a korban, megette a kenyere javát
- benne van a korbanold, aged
- megette a kenyere javátold, aged
Italian sbiadito, antiquato
- sbiaditoold, aged
- antiquatoold, aged
- in là con gli anniold, aged
Polish stary
- staryold, aged
Portuguese antiquado, ultrapassado
- antiquadoold, aged
- ultrapassadoold, aged
- velhoteold, aged
- velhuscoold, aged
- entradoteold, aged
Russian ста́рый, пожило́й
- ста́рый (stáryj)old, aged
- пожило́й (požilój)old, aged
- песо́к сыплется (pesók sypletsja)old, aged
Spanish rancio, ajado
- rancioold, aged
- ajadoold, aged
Cite this entry
long in the tooth. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/long%20in%20the%20tooth
“long in the tooth.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/long%20in%20the%20tooth. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “long in the tooth,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/long%20in%20the%20tooth.
Source: long in the tooth on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.