cliches

[ineptsleep]

Someone said to me, last night, that they got through a particularly rough situation, "just by the skin of their teeth." Seems to me that teeth have no skin, that I'm aware of - unless he meant that layer of stuff you get if you don't brush for a good bit. In which case this cliche advocates less teeth brushing? Man, I can not get behind that. I am

Comments

[squidrigailov]

i think it's just an innocent idiom, albeit a strange one. the point is that you don't have any skin on your teeth, and so something done by said skin is barely done at all.

hmm, explaining idioms can be like explaining jokes.

[dantesaint]

Dude, I absolutely adore the phrase "the skin of my teeth," its both evocative and completely and utterly vague. I want to use it everywhere all the time despite the fact that it makes no sense. Skin? Teeth. I agree with you.