# by the skin of one's teeth

Pronunciation: say "by thuh skin uhv wunz TEETH" US /baɪ ðə ˌskɪn əv wʌnz ˈtiθ/, UK /baɪ ðə ˌskɪn əv wʌnz ˈtiːθ/

## Idiom

1. By an extremely narrow margin; barely succeeding or escaping, with nothing to spare.
   - Simple: Only just, with no room or time to spare.
   - _The home team won the championship by the skin of their teeth, scoring in the final seconds._
   - _She made it out of the flooding basement by the skin of her teeth._

## Origin

The phrase comes from the Bible, Job 19:20: "My bones stick to my skin and to my flesh. I have escaped by the skin of my teeth."

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/by-the-skin-of-one-s-teeth (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).