/ · 1894 Brewer’s · C · Colt’s-tooth
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
The love of youthful pleasure. Chaucer uses the word “coltish” for skittish. Horses have at three years old the colt’s-tooth. The allusion is to the colt’s teeth of animals, a period of their life when their passions are strongest.
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“Her merry dancing-days are done;
She has a colt’s-tooth still, I warrant.”
King: Orpheus and Eurydice
“Well said, Lord Sands;
Your colt’s-tooth is not cast yet.”
Shakespeare: Henry VIII., i. 3.
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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.
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