Edge

(Anglo-Saxon, ecg.)

Not to put too fine an edge upon it. Not to mince the matter; to speak plainly.

“He is, not to put too fine an edge upon it, a thorough scoundrel.”—Lowell.

To be on edge. To be very eager or impatient.

To set one’s tecth on edge. To give one the horrors; to induce a tingling or grating sensation in one’s teeth, as from acids or harsh noises.

“I had rather hear a brazen canstick turned,

Or a dry wheel grate on the axle-tree;

And that would set my teeth nothing on edge,

Shakespeare: 1 Henry IV., iii. 1.

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.

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