phrase🎓 English idiom
by the skin of your teeth
just barely
What it means
By the narrowest possible margin; only just managing to succeed or escape. It emphasises how close a person came to failing or to disaster.
Words like “by the skin of your teeth” are exactly the kind of vocabulary our English vocabulary size test measures — find out how many English words you know.
Examples
- We caught the last train by the skin of our teeth, jumping on as the doors closed.
- She passed the exam by the skin of her teeth, scoring just one mark above the limit.
- The team won by the skin of their teeth with a goal in the final second.
- I finished the report by the skin of my teeth, sending it minutes before the deadline.
Where it comes from
From the Book of Job in the Bible ("I am escaped with the skin of my teeth"); since teeth have no skin, it expresses the slimmest of margins.
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