kick in the teeth


Also found in: Acronyms.

a kick in the teeth

A humiliating disappointment or setback. Losing my job after my car broke down was a real kick in the teeth. Having to move back in with my parents at age 40 is a real in the teeth all right. Losing the championship match was a kick in the teeth, but I knew I just had to train even harder and try again next year.
See also: kick, teeth

kick (one) in the teeth

1. To criticize, exploit, insult, or fail to help one who is in a trusting or vulnerable position. Can Jeff's employee review wait until next week? His girlfriend just left him, and I don't want to kick him in the teeth. After telling us we'd lost our Christmas bonuses, the company kicked us in the teeth by saying we'd be expected to work Christmas Eve.
2. To deliver a humiliating disappointment or setback to one. Losing to our cross-town rivals because of such a terrible call by the ref really kicked us in the teeth.
See also: kick, teeth
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2022 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.

kick in the teeth

verb
See kick in the seat of the pants
See also: kick, teeth
McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions Copyright © 2006 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
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References in periodicals archive ?
In my personal opinion, this draft decision is a real kick in the teeth for consumers and they will be paying the price for it for years to come."
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Joe Anderson, spokesman for Teesside Young Labour, said: "Freezing the minimum wage is a kick in the teeth for young people who are struggling to afford the increased costs of transport, study and living.
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Make no bones about it - it is a major kick in the teeth. We now have to be big enough to take it on the chin, dust ourselves down and get back on the rails.
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Duff said: "I must admit it was a bit of a kick in the teeth after two months out to hear about it.
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"This shows the poor regard that this Government holds this region in, and a real kick in the teeth. I sincerely hope that the Labour MPs in the West Midlands kick up a stink to change the Government's mind." The plan would have allowed the seven local councils to raise cash themselves, instead of depending on handouts from Whitehall..
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It was a kick in the teeth and I was sent out on loan at Wolves."
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The decision not to make available a series of dementia drugs to Alzheimer's sufferers is "a kick in the teeth for millions of people", a charity said today.
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SHADOW Wales Rural Affairs Minister Helen Mary Jones says proposals to make farmers pay more of the cost of disease outbreaks are another kick in the teeth.
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It smacks of a kick in the teeth for one dentist who is more than happy to take on patients on the NHS.
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Secondly Tony Blair's decision to scrap the Welsh Secretary post within the Cabinet and join it with the Scottish Office, with a Scottish lord overseeing Welsh affairs, is not only a slap in the face for democracy but also a kick in the teeth to the people of Wa es Andrew T Nutt Membership Officer, Plaid Cymru, Heolddu Road, Bargoed
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But one assembly worker, who did not wish to be named, described the severance terms as "a kick in the teeth".
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The Pack Meadow boss described the last-gasp 3-2 reverse to title-chasing Coventry Sphinx as "a real kick in the teeth".
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But Hughes has got Wales so close, for so many months, to theEuro 2004 finals,failure now would be a kick in the teeth.
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WELSH try-scorer Jamie Robinson admitted conceding three New Zealand scores in the dying minutes of defeat was a kick in the teeth.
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