Also used: sweet tooth
Meaning of Idiom ‘Have a Sweet Tooth’
To have a sweet tooth means to very much enjoy eating sugary foods; to have a marked craving or desire for sweet foods like candy and pastries.
Usage Notes
While this idiom usually includes the word have as in ‘he has a sweet tooth,’ the term sweet tooth can be used alone in other ways, e.g. “Those candies really satisfied my sweet tooth.’
Sentence Examples
“It’s true I have a sweet tooth but it’s mostly devoted to pastries and espeically donuts.”
“Would you like some fudge?” “No thanks, I don’t have much of a sweet tooth.”
“I’d be skinny if it wasn’t for my sweet tooth. I have make sure there’s nothing sugary in the house or I’ll binge on it like crazy.”
“Wow, you have quite the sweet tooth. That’s your third bowl of ice cream, today.”
“I never skip dessert. I have too much of a sweet tooth.”
Origin of Have a Sweet Tooth
This idiom dates from the sixteenth century. It uses the word ‘tooth’ to mean ‘craving’ or ‘appetite for.’ However, the word sweet wasn’t always used to refer only to sugary foods. Originally, it could refer to any rich and exorbitant food and could also be applied to wine and other intoxicating liquors. Thomas Adams used it in a sermon in 1629:
Thou are a Christian, and fearest not that ever thous shouldest apostate into the denial of they Saviour; yet let me say thou hast the materials of this sine within thee–timorousness and self-love. Thou sayest, ‘Sure, I shall never be a drunkard, that belluine folly shall never apprehend me;’ yet thou has teh materials of this within theee, and that naturally and heriditarialy from thy first grandmother Eve: a sweet tooth in thy head, a liquorish appetite to delicate meats and intoxicating wines.
