2006-12-17 23:49:12 · 9 answers · asked by QUEENB 1 in Health ➔ Dental
exactly ! british humour
in most cases it means you were very bloody lucky as you got by by the skin of your teeth !
2006-12-17 23:51:17 · answer #1 · answered by weizy_26 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
As others have said, 'by the skin of your teeth' does mean 'by a narrow margin' . However, after teeth have formed in the jaw bone, but before they erupt, they do have a layer of 'skin' called reduced enamel epithelium. This layer is only a few cells thick and is important during the eruption of the teeth. Therefore the narrow margin = a few cells thick
2006-12-18 10:37:38 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
As there is no skin on your teeth, by getting something by the skin of your teeth shows just how close you came to not getting it.
2006-12-17 23:57:23 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
The expression by (or with) the skin of one's teeth, which means 'by an extremely narrow margin; just barely; scarcely' is an example of a literal translation of a phrase in another language. It's also another example of a Biblical expression gaining currency in mainstream usage.
The Biblical source of this phrase is the following passage, where Job is complaining about how illness has ravaged his body: "My bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh, and I am escaped with the skin of my teeth" (Job xix.20, in the King James Version). The point here is that Job is so sick that there's nothing left to his body. The passage is rendered differently in other translations; the Douay Bible, for example, which is an English translation of the Vulgate (St. Jerome's fourth-century Latin translation), gives: "My bone hath cleaved to my skin, and nothing but lips are left about my teeth."
The phrase, which first appears in English in a mid-sixteenth-century translation of the Bible, does not appear to become common until the nineteenth century. At this point by the skin of one's teeth is the usual form, as if the teeth actually have skin that is so fine you can barely tell. (An interesting parallel is the nineteenth-century Americanism fine as frog's hair, meaning 'very fine', based on a similar assumption.)
2006-12-18 00:03:28 · answer #4 · answered by S H 6 · 1⤊ 1⤋
No skin..haha you see what happens if you have a tooth extracted..plenty of skin of sorts holding it in then. A quick Tug Oooooooooooch! Skin heals over the wound so a tooth must have skin surrounding it.
Metaphoric.... by the skin of your teeth!
2006-12-17 23:53:27 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
It means "by an impossibly slim margin".
2006-12-17 23:52:39 · answer #6 · answered by tomaso4 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It's just a saying.
2006-12-21 19:22:23 · answer #7 · answered by Crisp Star 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Exactly - thats how close it was xxxxxxxxxxx
2006-12-17 23:51:20 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Its just a saying.......jeeees!
2006-12-17 23:51:43 · answer #9 · answered by Neo 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋