cut one's teeth

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Verb

cut one's teeth (third-person singular simple present cuts one's teeth, present participle cutting one's teeth, simple past and past participle cut one's teeth)

1. (idiomatic) To begin; to gain early experience.

   He cut his teeth flying model airplanes as a child, so aeronautical engineering came naturally.

Translations

gain early experience

• Finnish: aloittaa (fi)
• French: faire ses dents (fr) (to begin), se faire les dents sur ... (fr) (to gain early experience on ...)
• Italian: farsi le ossa, fare la gavetta
• Latvian: bērnam nāk zobi
• Polish: zjeść zęby (pl) pf
• Spanish: hacer sus pinitos, hacer sus primeras armas

See also

• cut one's eyeteeth
• make one's bones