jumping in one's skin

Verb

jump in one's skin (third-person singular simple present jumps in one's skin, present participle jumping in one's skin, simple past and past participle jumped in one's skin)

1. (idiomatic) To start with fright.
   • The neighborhood, to our ears, seemed haunted by approaching footsteps; and what between the dead body of the captain on the parlor floor, and the thought of that detestable blind beggar hovering near at hand, and ready to return, there were moments when, as the saying goes, I jumped in my skin for...1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, chapter 4, in Treasure Island, London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, →OCLC