Scarce as hen's teeth
Suggest a CorrectionMeaning
Extremely rare or effectively nonexistent, like teeth in an adult hen, which has a beak rather than visible teeth. Informal and emphatic. Because the literal image means nonexistent, it can overstate cases where something is merely difficult to find. Regional use: American English, now more widely understood.
Origin
The comparison is an American impossibility formula documented by 1838. Adult modern birds, including hens, do not have teeth, so the image makes scarcity absolute rather than merely unusual. Both 'scarce as hen's teeth' and 'rare as hen's teeth' circulated, with comparative forms such as 'scarcer than hen's teeth' following naturally. The saying needs no lost farming custom or extinct breed of toothed chicken; its joke depends on ordinary observation and deliberate biological impossibility.
Research Sources
Variants
- Rare as hen's teeth
- Scarcer than hen's teeth
- As scarce as hen's teeth
Usage Examples
- Affordable rooms near the festival are scarce as hen's teeth by midsummer.
- Original copies with the map intact are now rarer than hen's teeth.
- On that remote island, spare engine parts were as scarce as hen's teeth.