Meanings
- Very close together
Having no safe, private sanitation facilities in areas where people are living tooth-to-jowl means going the whole day without relieving oneself and then risking exposure at night.
2004, Millennium Project, Interim Report of Task Force 7 on Water and Sanitation, 02-011 more example
Most Latinos don’t live tooth-to-jowl because they love each other so much. In fact, new census data (again, statistics) show that Latinos in the Pajaro Valley have some of the highest crowding problems in the state.
2002 April 7, Heather Boerner, “Gimme Shelter Rethinking California’s housing needs”, in Santa Cruz Sentinel
Synonyms & antonyms
Cite this entry
tooth-to-jowl. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tooth-to-jowl
“tooth-to-jowl.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tooth-to-jowl. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “tooth-to-jowl,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tooth-to-jowl.
Source: tooth-to-jowl on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.