box of ivories
A wonderfully old-fashioned slang term for a set of human teeth — playfully comparing the mouth full of teeth to a box of ivory pieces, like the white keys on a piano or actual carved ivory.
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A wonderfully old-fashioned slang term for a set of human teeth — playfully comparing the mouth full of teeth to a box of ivory pieces, like the white keys on a piano or actual carved ivory. The phrase belongs to the witty, visual slang of 19th-century British and American informal speech. While nobody talks this way anymore, it has a charming quality and occasionally surfaces in period fiction, comedy, and historical wordplay. Dentists could theoretically use it for branding, but probably shouldn't.
The boxer flashed his box of ivories at the crowd before the weigh-in.
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(slang, archaic) A set of teeth.
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Semantically related
- ivory59%
Something made from or resembling ivory.
- sneeze-box59%
A cheeky old British slang term for a snuffbox — the small ornate container used to carry powdered tobacco (snuff) that was inhaled through the nose. The name is entirely logical: you open the box, take a pinch, sniff it up, and sneeze. It's the kind of blunt descriptive nickname that Georgian and Victorian England was excellent at producing. Today it's more historical curiosity than active vocabulary, but it has genuine charm.
- cardboard box58%
(Cockney rhyming slang) Syphilis.
- country box58%
A dated British colloquial expression for a modest country house — not a grand estate but a comfortable rural retreat, the kind of unpretentious weekend getaway that a well-off Victorian or Edwardian professional might maintain. The word 'box' conveys smallness and practicality rather than grandeur; a country-box was where you went to shoot game or escape London smog, not to impress anyone. The phrase has a pleasantly self-deprecating quality that suits the British sensibility.