By The Skin of Your Teeth




Previous Page

By The Skin of Your Teeth : Phrases



Meaning:

Narrowly; barely. Usually used in regard to a narrow escape from a disaster.


Example:







Origin:

The phrase first appears in English in the Geneva Bible, 1560, in Job 19:20, which provides a literal translation of the original Hebrew:

"I haue escaped with the skinne of my tethe."

Teeth don't have skin, of course, so the writer may have been alluding to the teeth's surface or simply to a notional minute measure - something that might now be referred to, with less poetic imagery then the biblical version, as 'as small as the hairs on a gnat's bollock'.





Phrases Index





From The Skin to HOME PAGE



Follow These Links!