Setting Your Teeth on Edge
Definition: To irritate or annoy intensely. Picture the spine-shivering sensation of biting on tinfoil, or hearing someone’s nails drag across a chalkboard.
Historical Tidbits: This phrase is as old as the hills! It’s mentioned in several books of the Bible including Jeremiah 31:29 and Ezekiel 18:2. Shakespeare also graphically employed it in Henry VI, Part 1: “I had rather hear a brazen canstick turn’d, Or a dry wheel grate on the axle-tree, And that would set my teeth nothing on edge, Nothing so much as mincing poetry.”
Related Expressions:
- Rub the wrong way: Annoy or irritate someone unintentionally. Think of petting a cat in a way it doesn’t like.
- Drive up the wall: Exasperate or frustrate.
- Push someone’s buttons: Knowingly irritate someone.
- Get on someone’s nerves: Continually annoy someone.
Synonyms: Annoy, irritate, vex, perturb, exasperate
Antonyms: Comfort, soothe, pacify, please, delight
Humorous Quote:
“I could sooner drink a gallon of seawater or chew tinfoil than listen to him sing karaoke again!” 🛠️🍾
Proverb: “A calm sea does not make a skilled sailor.”
Related Literature & Media:
- Literature: Great Expectations by Charles Dickens (Mrs. Joe’s scolding has a knack for setting Pip’s teeth on edge).
- Movies: Office Space (1999) (The dysfunctional office environment that never fails to drive the main characters up the wall).
- Songs: Sound of Silence by Simon & Garfunkel (Hello, darkness, my old friend…those haunting tones can certainly set one on edge).
Until next time, remember life is but a collection of moments. Seek the ones that brush your soul the right way, and ignore those that set your teeth on edge.
Sincerely, Ima Groaner
