no skin off my teeth
1
9.9
- idiom
- Informal
:
no es un problema
- It's no skin off my teeth if you decide to leave early.
Examples
-
You can change the date if you want; it's no skin off my teeth.
-
It's no skin off my teeth if they decide to go somewhere else.
-
If they don't listen to my advice, it's no skin off my teeth.
-
If he doesn't want to join us, it's no skin off my teeth.
-
I failed the test, but it's no skin off my teeth; I can try again next week.
-
If they decide to change the schedule, it's no skin off my teeth; I have flexible hours.
-
Missing the party tonight is no skin off my teeth; I needed some time to rest anyway.
Synonyms
13
8.5
Not a serious problem you need to worry about
1
9.7
It does not bother me if something happens
Not upset or harmed when something happens to someone else
Antonyms
How Affected
Surface Forms
Morphology
no + skin + off + mine + teeth
The literal meanings of 'no', 'skin', 'off', 'my(n)e' and 'teeth' do not compose to yield 'not affected or troubled'; the phrase is an idiomatic (and nonstandard) variant of patterns like 'no skin off my nose/back' whose meaning is not predictable from the parts. A B1 learner who knows the individual words would not reliably infer the idiomatic sense, so it should be treated as opaque.
Etymology
The idiom no skin off my teeth may come from the older phrase no skin off my nose, which used the picture of losing 'skin' from a body part to show real harm. The odd image of skin coming off your teeth makes it clear nothing is hurt, so the phrase means 'it doesn't bother me'.