English Reference
Idiom idiom

sour tooth


A liking for foods that are sour.

Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.


SIMPLE

I have a sour tooth and love eating lemons.

CONTEXTUAL

My friend has a real sour tooth, so she always orders the lime sorbet.

COMPLEX

Despite the common preference for sweetness, his distinct sour tooth leads him to favor fermented dishes and tart citrus fruits.


The term is formed by analogy with the phrase *sweet tooth*. Produced by a simple reversal of culinary preference, the expression follows the established linguistic pattern for describing a specific appetitive inclination.


Related idioms8entries
  1. 01

    an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth

    compensation for injury caused by a person, in the form of inflicting of an identical injury on that person.

  2. 02

    clean as a hound's tooth

    Very clean.

  3. 03

    hen's tooth

    Anything not naturally occurring.

  4. 04

    leave a sour taste in one's mouth

    To give one an unpleasant feeling or memory.

  5. 05

    long in the tooth

    Old; aged.

  6. 06

    salty tooth

    A liking for foods that are salty.

  7. 07

    sour grapes

    Things that somebody pretends to despise because they cannot obtain or have them.

  8. 08

    sour note

    A negative aspect to something mostly positive.

Last updated August 10, 2026