toothpick
(ˈtuːθpɪk)
Forms: see tooth n.; also 5–6 -pike, 6 -picke.
[See pick n.1 5.]
1. An instrument for picking the teeth: usually a pointed quill or small piece of wood; sometimes of gold, silver, or other material.
| 1488 Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot. I. 81 Twa tuthpikis of gold with a chenȝe. 1538 Elyot, Nitella, a toothe pike [1545 tothe pykar]. Sometyme it signifyeth elegancy in speche. 1562 Turner Herbal ii. 34 b, Stickes and strawes and other tooth pickes. 1579 N.C. Wills (Surtees) II. 93 To M{supr} Roberte Toutte a tothe pyke of silver. 1635 Swan Spec. M. ix. §1 (1643) 450 Of these [porcupine] quills men make wholesome tooth-picks. 1775 Black in Phil. Trans. LXV. 125 Stirring it gently with a quill tooth-pick. 1873 Doran Lady of last Cent. xi. 298 A welcome which extended..from the manufacturer of toothpicks to the writer of an epic poem. |
2. A name for the umbelliferous plant
Ammi Visnaga, the hardened rays of the umbel of which are used as toothpicks: also called
Spanish toothpick,
toothpick bishop-weed (see 6 b).
| 1598 Florio, Bisacuto, the hearbe toothpick, or cheruill. 1760 J. Lee Introd. Bot. App. 330 Tooth-pick, Daucus. 1884 Miller Plant-n., Ammi Visnaga, Spanish Tooth⁓pick, Tooth-pick Bishop's-weed. |
3. pl. Splinters, small elongated fragments, ‘matchwood’: in hyperbolic
phr. smashed (etc.) into toothpicks.
| 1839 Marryat Phant. Ship ix, The..ship will be beaten into toothpicks. 1899 Daily News 9 Mar. 5/3 The Pavonia tried to lower a boat, but it was smashed into toothpicks on the ship's side. |
4. A bowie-knife: also
Arkansas toothpick.
U.S. slang.| 1867 Lowell Biglow P. Ser. ii. i. 151, I didn't call but jest on one, an' he drawed toothpick on me, An' reckoned he warn't goin' to stan' no sech doggauned econ'my. 1881 A. B. Greenleaf Ten Y. in Texas 27 With..an Arkansas ‘toothpick’ suspended to a raw-hide belt buckled around their waists. |
5. A very narrow pointed boat.
slang.| 1897 Kipling Capt. Cour. iv. 104 ‘You should see one o' them toothpicks histin' up her anchor on her spike outer fifteen-fathom water’. ‘What's a toothpick, Dan?’ ‘Them new haddockers an' herrin' boats’. 1909 J. Dalziel High Life in East 201 The Magistrate got smartly into his ‘toothpick’, the attendant boat-boys..gave him carefully the necessary offing, he swung forward on his sculls. |
6. attrib. and
Comb. a. attrib. or as adj. † (
a) in reference to the use of the toothpick as an idle occupation; (
b) denoting objects of narrow and pointed shape.
| 1761 Churchill Night 109 Or if in tittle-tattle, tooth-pick way, Our rambling thoughts with easy freedom stray. 1767 S. Paterson Another Trav. II. 168 To enjoy uninterrupted, listless, toothpick ease. 1880 ‘Mark Twain’ Tramp Abroad I. 235 A heaped-up confusion of red roofs, quaint gables,..toothpick steeples. 1895 S. B. Kennedy in Outing (U.S.) XXVII. 6/1 [She] gave me the go-by for a patent medicine drummer with tooth-pick shoes. |
b. Comb., as
toothpick-box,
toothpick-case;
toothpick-shaped adj.;
toothpick bishop-weed (see 2);
† toothpick chervil = prec., or allied species.
| 1866 Treas. Bot. 51 *Tooth-pick Bishop-weed, A[mmi] Visnaga, is so called on account of the use made in Spain of the rays or stalks of the main umbel. These, after flowering, shrink, and become so hard that they form convenient tooth-picks. |
| 1669 R. Montagu in Buccleuch MSS. (Hist. MSS. Comm.) I. 448, 2 knives, a *toothpick-box, and a tiremoelle. |
| 1684 Lond. Gaz. No. 1972/4 A *tooth pick Case of Black wood, tipt on both ends, and at the opening with Silver. |
| 1578 Lyte Dodoens v. i. 615 This herbe is called..in Spayne, Visnaga:..it may be called *Toothpicke Cheruill. |
| 1905 W. E. Geil Yankee in Pigmy Land v. 64 We tramped past many trees armed with long, white *toothpick-shaped thorns. |