What do You Mean by ‘Cutting One’s Teeth on Something’?

To cut one’s teeth (on something) means —

• to gain early experience at a young age doing something;
• to begin your career on something.

This expression is a reference to the painful process when the baby’s teeth first appear. They grow out of gums, often painfully. In the beginning, when their teeth are growing, the children are given semi-liquid soft items to chew on. In a sense, they are gaining experience for real-world uses when they will be given solid food to eat.

Thus, this expression is an analogy to a person gaining experience on something at the start of their career.

For example —

“Before starting as a scriptwriter in films, he cut his teeth writing short stories for local newspapers.”

It means that he started his career as a short story writer and then got into scriptwriting.

The same painful process of teeth growing out of gums has given rise to another expression — “Teething troubles” which refers to the small problems that arise in the initial stages of anything new, such as a business, a project, or a process.

For example —

“We ran into some teething troubles during the first few months of the startup, but now everything is streamlined.”

It means that we encountered some small problems for a few months after the launch of the startup but now everything is working fine.

I hope you found this story interesting. If you did, buy my full course on Udemy or watch it for free on Skillshare by signing up here. This course covers nearly 380 idioms with their origins and backstories.

Hi, I am Gauri Shanker, a Vocab teacher and enthusiast. I teach vocabulary in a fun and engaging way. You can check out my courses here.