Skin of my teeth

Skin of my teeth (Template:Lang-he ‘ō-wr šin-nāy) is a phrase from the Bible. In Job 19:20, the King James Version of the Bible says, "My bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh, and I am escaped with the skin of my teeth." In the Geneva Bible, the phrase is rendered as "I haue escaped with the skinne of my tethe."

In modern times, "by the skin of my teeth" is used to describe a situation from which one barely managed to escape.

Cultural references to the phrase

• Skin o' My Teeth—Megadeth used this phrase as a song name in their 1992 album, Countdown to Extinction, referring to the theme of a failed suicide attempt.
• The Skin of Our Teeth—A play by Thornton Wilder with multiple Biblical allusions.
• Skin o' My Tooth—A book by Baroness Emma Orczy in which the phrase is a nickname of the main character, a lawyer. The nickname is given by a client who says that he was freed "by the skin o' my tooth."

See also

• Hair's breadth

References

2. Idioms (first paragraph)