Just barely

We caught the train by the skin of our teeth: it was just about to pull out of the station

Abbiamo preso il treno per il rotto della cuffia. Quando siamo arrivati, stava per avviarsi

Yesterday we had a very close call. We were skiing on fresh snow, when a small avalanche almost got us and we made it by the skin of our teeth

Ieri l'abbiamo scampata proprio bella. Stavamo sciando nella neve fresca quando ci ha sfiorato una piccola valanga. Ce la siamo cavata solo per il rotto della cuffia

In the Book of Job (Job 19:20), the poor man, after going over all his misfortunes, tells Bildad that: "My bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh, and I am escaped with the skin of my teeth"-i.e., with nothing, since teeth have no skin. The modern American expression and its meaning, using "by" instead of "with", appeared only at the beginning of the 19th century