A toothpick is a very small thin stick, pointed at one or both ends, used for getting bits of food out from between your teeth after a meal. Most are wooden; you throw them away after one use. Restaurants often keep a small pot of them by the door. There is a manners point attached, and it differs by place: in Britain and America, picking your teeth at the table is thought rude, so people cover their mouth with one hand or go to the bathroom, while in Taiwan and much of East Asia it is ordinary to do it at the table, usually with a hand raised to cover. The word does a second job in the kitchen, and this one is just as common: toothpicks hold food together and hold small pieces of food for eating. You spear a cube of cheese on a toothpick at a party, you push toothpicks through a rolled piece of chicken to keep it shut while it cooks, and you test a cake by pushing a toothpick into the middle — if it comes out clean and dry, the cake is done. There is also a fixed way of describing a very thin person: 'she's like a toothpick', or 'toothpick legs'. It is informal, and it can sound unkind, so use it about yourself rather than about other people.