Abdelmonem Samir Apr 20, 2013:

Dea lamis,
Actually we can assume, as long as we give a low confidence level so as not to mislead the asker. If we can't assume, then what good are the confidence levels? They are there for a reason, ans that is to indicate that "i'm guessing".

The way i see it, the three answers provided are theories, because the context is not clear. Snd for that matter, i'm the only one who gave a low confidence level for his theory.

Regarding the biblical quotation, i understand it refers to the meaning
يصر بأسنانه
And this is consistent with the meaning i found in the arabic literature i found on the internet. In most of the cases the expression is used in situations where the doer of this act is angry and furious, hence my guess.

Regarding your suggestion, talking thru their teeth, i'm afraid it is still a theory. If they use this expression in english, this does not mean it is the same as the arabic because we are not sure if the arabic expression is an "idiom" in the first place. And we are not sure in what sense the english expression is used, you only provided usage examples with no references rgrding the meaning.

Sorry for any writing mistakes, i'm writing from my mobile.

Lamis Maalouf Apr 20, 2013:

More than the context Dear colleagues, we can't assume more than what we see in the context. For example, the last URL in Abdelmonem's answer is a translation of what the Jews did to the martyr, Steven, and in my Arabic Bible it is:
أَيُّ الأَنْبِيَاءِ لَمْ يَضْطَهِدْهُ آبَاؤُكُمْ؟ وَقَدْ قَتَلُوا الَّذِينَ سَبَقُوا فَأَنْبَأُوا بِمَجِيءِ الْبَارِّ، الَّذِي أَنْتُمُ الآنَ صِرْتُمْ مُسَلِّمِيهِ وَقَاتِلِيهِ، الَّذِينَ أَخَذْتُمُ النَّامُوسَ بِتَرْتِيبِ مَلاَئِكَةٍ وَلَمْ تَحْفَظُوهُ».
فَلَمَّا سَمِعُوا هذَا حَنِقُوا بِقُلُوبِهِمْ وَصَرُّوا بِأَسْنَانِهِمْ عَلَيْهِ
So Steven rebuked the Jews and they gnashed their teeth and stoned him to death. We can't say that the children in this story are gnashing their teeth or talking through their gritted teeth. They are simply talking through their teeth, maybe because of fear.