By the skin of your teeth
Not too long ago I was involved in a discussion involving the origins of this saying and we all left quite mystified, albeit with a lot of ideas. While plugging Charles Earle Funk's book Thereby Hangs a Tale in the previous du jour Brain Know?, it occured to my I should look this saying up in his other favorite book of mine, Heavens to Betsy! & Other Curious Sayings. It didn't quite answer my question, but it did satisfy my curiosity. What I found was the saying "to be skinned out of one's eyeteeth." This was a new one to me, and…