Brewer's: Tirer une Dent

To draw a man's tooth, or extort money from him. The allusion is to the tale told by Holinshed of King John, who extorted 10,000 marks from a Jew living at Bristol by extracting a tooth daily till he consented to provide the money. For seven successive days a tooth was taken, and then the Jew gave in.

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