The new policy caused a lot of gnashing of teeth in the office.
gnashing of teeth
idiomExtreme distress, frustration, or anguished complaining.
Origin
The phrase belongs to Jesus's warnings about judgment in Matthew's Gospel. The formula weeping and gnashing of teeth appears at Matthew 8:12 and again at 13:42, describing the anguish of those shut out of the kingdom — grinding the teeth being the ancient gesture of rage and torment.
Repeated across several of the parables, the image lodged in Christian imagination as the sound of despair, and the King James wording carried it whole into English.
Modern usage has softened it considerably. Gnashing of teeth now often names loud but survivable dismay — the outrage and hand-wringing that greet an unpopular decision — usually with a hint of dry amusement at how much fuss is being made.
There was much gnashing of teeth among the fans when the club sold its best player.
The reorganisation was announced to predictable gnashing of teeth, though within a month the same people who had denounced it loudest were quietly admitting it had solved problems everyone had complained about for years.
End-times and final-judgment imagery, from the Gospels to Revelation.
- 01
Alpha and Omega (idiom)
The beginning and the end; the most essential or all-encompassing element of something.
- 02
a bottomless pit (idiom)
Something that consumes endlessly and can never be filled or satisfied.
- 03
fire-and-brimstone (word)
Threats of punishment or damnation, especially in stern moralising or preaching.
- 04
separate the sheep from the goats (idiom)
To distinguish the worthy or capable from the unworthy or inadequate.
- 05
cast into outer darkness (idiom)
To be completely excluded, banished, or shut out from a group or from favour.