涨知识：13个让你看不懂的英文习语的起源

If you do something by the "skin of your teeth," you're barely managing to do it. One of the first recordings of this phrase is from the Bible.
如果你通过“牙齿的皮肤”（skin of your teeth）来做某件事，这说明你勉勉强强有能力做这件事。这个短语最早出现在《圣经》中。

In Job 19:20, Job says, "My bone clings to my skin and to my flesh, / And I have escaped by the skin of my teeth."
在《约伯记》第19章第20节中，约伯说：“我的皮肉紧贴骨头，我只剩牙皮逃脱了。”

Teeth don't have skin, so it was likely an allusion to something small or so thin that it was insubstantial.
然而牙齿并没有皮肤，所以这一说法可能代指小、纤薄而不重要的东西。