Brewer's: Eye-teeth

The canine teeth are so called because their fangs extend upwards nearly to the orbits of the eyes.

To draw one's eye-teeth.
To take the conceit out of a person; to fleece one without mercy; to make one suffer loss without seeing the manoeuvre by which it was effected.

“I guess these Yanks will get their eye-teeth drawn if they don't look sharp.” —W. Hepworth Dixon: New America, vol. i.

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
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