I saw the word “knife-in-her-teeth daughter” in Maureen Dawd’s article, titled “Darth Vader Vents” in New York Times (August 27). The article deals with former Vice president Dick Cheney’s new memoir, “In My Time,” and Maureen introduces the book;
“His knife-in-her-teeth daughter, Elizabeth Cheney, helped write the book. The second most famous Liz & Dick combo do such an excellent job of cherry-picking the facts, it makes the cherry-picking on the Iraq war intelligence seem picayune.”
As I was unfamiliar with the phrase, “knife-in-one’s teeth,” I checked the definition of it on Cambridge and Merriam-Webster online dictionaries, without finding entry of the phrase on neither of them (though there was a difinition of 'kick in the teeth').
Although I can guess it means “bellicose” or “defiant,” from the nuance of the word, I wonder if “knife-in-one’s teeth” is popular English phrase or not. I also have a feeling that it's better applied to woman than man, because man is considered to be bellicose creature from the beginning.
Best Answer
Having a "knife in one's teeth" is not a common phrase, although it is a common TV Trope. As the page for cutlass between one's teeth writes,
It brings to mind the picture of a pirate, or someone who will do even dangerous things to achieve their goal. They may be gung-ho, and very take-charge--as @Robusto puts it, in short they are ready for action.
This imagery is in contrast with the "other" cherry-picking which was picayune or "trivial". It can be applied to either women or men. Neither phrase is frequently used in words, but the imagery does tend to evoke a pirate or someone similar.