https://www.proz.com/kudoz/english-to-french/idioms-maxims-sayings/6134765-to-have-more-teeth.html

Glossary entry

English term or phrase:

To have more teeth

French translation:

sont aussi parfois plus incisives...

Added to glossary by Alexandre Tissot
Jun 20, 2016 07:12
7 yrs ago
English term

To have more teeth

English to French Bus/Financial Idioms / Maxims / Sayings Notes de conférence
Bonjour,

Je traduis des notes de conférence plutôt urgentes.

Je me demande si dans le présent contexte l'expression "To have more teeth" n'a pas de sens de "s'enhardir", "sortir des sentiers battus", "sortir de son domaine de compétence" ou quelque chose comme cela bien qu'elle signifie "to have the power to enforce something, such as a rule, a law, regulation and so on."

Contexte : il est question du fonctionnement d'une entreprise.

"The ‘line’ organisation is predominant.
It drives all of the resources, most of the decision making, runs the profit and loss, and is the interface with our customers.
But ‘functions’ are also vital, in that they think a little more, longer term, in their functional domain, work mostly on sharing best practice between the line organisations, but also sometimes ***have a bit more teeth*** and talk about minimum standards."

Merci beaucoup, bonne journée et bonne semaine.

Proposed translations

+5
6 hrs
Selected

sont aussi parfois plus incisives...

... et rappellent les normes minimales.
Note from asker:
Merci, Emérentienne.
Peer comment(s):

agree FX Fraipont (X) : excellent ;-)
2 hrs
agree Solen Fillatre : nice!
4 hrs
agree Annie Rigler
4 hrs
agree Jean-Claude Gouin
23 hrs
agree Premium✍️ : :)
158 days
Something went wrong...
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Merci à toutes et à tous !"
14 mins

avoir plus de mordant

Not sure what they are trying to say, with the "minimum standards" right after the expression, but the literal translation would be this. Could it be "have more ambition"?
Note from asker:
Thank you, Solen. That is a good take!
Something went wrong...
2 hrs

s'imposer un peu plus

Je pense que l'on fait ici référence au caractère habituellement consultatif des fonctions et de la nécessité qu'elles essaient aussi d'imposer certaines choses
Note from asker:
Merci, Claude.
Something went wrong...
6 hrs

montrent un peu les dents

...
Note from asker:
Merci, Anne-Marie.
Something went wrong...