You are come off now with a whole skin.

Miguel De Cervantes (1547-1616): Don Quixote. Part i. Book iii. Chap. v.

  As that great captain, Ziska, would have a drum made of his skin when he was dead, because he thought the very noise of it would put his enemies to flight.

Robert Burton (1576-1640): Anatomy of Melancholy. Democritus to the Reader.

  Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots?

Old Testament: Jeremiah xiii. 23.

  Is not this a lamentable thing, that of the skin of an innocent lamb should be made parchment? that parchment, being scribbled o'er, should undo a man?

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): King Henry VI. Part II. Act iv. Sc. 2.

  I am escaped with the skin of my teeth.

Old Testament: Job xix. 20.

  Many a dangerous temptation comes to us in fine gay colours that are but skin-deep.

Mathew Henry (1662-1714): Commentaries. Genesis iii.