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by the skin of one's teeth

idiomatic prepositional phrase

- by a narrow margin; only just

Collins English Dictionary

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ORIGIN

Like Shakespeare, a prolific coiner of new words, the King James translation of the Bible has been a big source of English phrases.

‘By the skin of one’s teeth’ is one of them. Meaning ‘narrowly’ or ‘barely’, and referring usually to a narrow escape from disaster, comes from the Book of Job, in which Job is subjected to horrible trials by Satan, to be relieved finally by God.

"My bones stick to my skin and to my flesh. I have escaped by the skin of my teeth" (Job 19.20).

Job escaped with his teeth, but just barely. Job may be comparing the narrow margin of his escape with the shallow ‘skin’ or porcelain of a tooth: the equivalent, in fact, of a ‘hair’s breadth’.

Adapted from Oxford Dictionaries

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SOME OTHER COMMON "SKIN" EXPRESSIONS

skin deep = oberflächlich
Beauty is but skin-deep = Man kann nach dem Äußeren nicht urteilen
to jump out of one's skin = aus der Haut fahren
to save one's skin = seine Haut retten
I got soaked to the skin = Ich wurde bis auf die Haut nass
He is just skin and bones = Er ist bis auf die Knochen abgemagert

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SYNONYMS

only just, just, narrowly, by a hair's breadth, by a very small margin, by the narrowest of margins, barely, by a nose; informal: by a whisker

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Practice OWAD in a conversation today “He caught the train, but only BY THE SKIN OF HIS TEETH.“