by the skin of one's teeth
by the skin of one's teeth prepositional phrase: barely; closely; by a narrow margin; with nothing to spare.
Prepositional phrase
- Barely; closely; by a narrow margin; with nothing to spare.
- I passed the test by the skin of my teeth.
- I would have liked to have hung around in Birmingham, but my connections are tight owing to a points failure, and I make the CrossCountry Class 170 to Derby by the skin of my teeth.2022 November 16, Paul Bigland, “From rural branches to high-speed arteries”, in RAIL, number 970, page 57
- Synonyms:
- by a hair's breadth, with the skin of one's teeth
by the skin of one's teeth meaning in Thai
by the skin of one's teeth in Thai
- barely, closely
- เส้นยาแดงผ่าแปด
Synonyms of by the skin of one's teeth
Origin of by the skin of one's teeth
* From Job 19.20. "My bones stick to my skin and to my flesh. I have escaped by the skin of my teeth."
Questions about by the skin of one's teeth
- What does by the skin of one's teeth mean?
- By the skin of one's teeth means barely; closely; by a narrow margin; with nothing to spare.
- What is by the skin of one's teeth in Thai?
- By the skin of one's teeth in Thai is เส้นยาแดงผ่าแปด. See By the skin of one's teeth meaning in Thai.
- What part of speech is by the skin of one's teeth?
- By the skin of one's teeth is a prepositional phrase.
Words near by the skin of one's teeth in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: by the skin of one's teeth (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-by the skin of one's teeth.ogg.
Cite this entry: “by the skin of one's teeth.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/by_the_skin_of_one%27s_teeth. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.