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Tiếng Việt

By the skin of your teeth

Only just; by the narrowest possible margin.

Thoát trong gang tấc.

Chỉ vừa đủ, suýt nữa thì không kịp.

By the skin of your teeth

Examples

  • Leave now and you will make it by the skin of your teeth.

    Đi ngay bây giờ thì vẫn kịp, nhưng chỉ vừa sát nút.

  • He passed the exam by the skin of his teeth.

    Anh ấy thi đỗ mà chỉ vừa sát nút.

In Popular Culture

  • Speech

    Whether you're graduating today at the top of your class or by the skin of your teeth, your presence on this field is a tremendous accomplishment.

    Dù hôm nay các bạn tốt nghiệp với thứ hạng đầu khóa hay chỉ vừa đủ qua trong gang tấc, việc các bạn có mặt trên sân này đã là một thành tựu to lớn.

    George W. Bush

    Commencement Address at the United States Coast Guard Academy (2007)

Origin

In short

From the Book of Job, and a literal rendering of the Hebrew that four centuries of English has never smoothed away.

Timeline

  1. The Geneva Bible has Job escape "with the skin of his teeth" (Job 19:20).

  2. The King James Version keeps the wording, and it enters ordinary English.

In Job 19:20, stripped of his family, his health and his property, Job says that he has escaped with the skin of his teeth. The Geneva Bible of 1560 puts it that way and the King James Version of 1611 keeps it, which is how the phrase entered ordinary English and stayed there.

Teeth have no skin, and that is the point rather than a flaw in the translation. The translators rendered the Hebrew as it stood instead of paraphrasing it into something more comfortable, and the result names a margin so thin it does not exist — which is a more exact description of a narrow escape than any measurable margin would be.

Most biblical phrases in English have been worn down by use until nobody notices where they came from. This one survived intact because it cannot be worn down. The strangeness is not decoration on the meaning; it is the meaning.

Topics

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