
it's no skin off someone's nose
Meaning: It has no effect on someone or it is of no concern to someone.
Example: “If you want to quit the club, it's no skin off my nose.”
Origin: American, first recorded in a 1910 issue of Cosmopolitan and firmly established by the 1940s, with its likeliest source in early-20th-century boxing slang: a fighter who came through a bout without a mark on his nose had taken nothing from the exchange, whatever else happened in the ring — his skin, and by extension his stake in the outcome, stayed untouched. A second, less credited theory reads it as the deliberate opposite of "nose to the grindstone," the no-effort case set against the hard-effort one, though the boxing origin is generally considered the stronger of the two.
More English idioms
- like water off a duck's back Having no effect on someone.
- look down one's nose at someone or something To be snobbish about someone or something.
- make one's blood boil To cause someone to become extremely angry.
- make one's mouth water To make one salivate in anticipation of something good.
- millstone around one's neck A burden or handicap, or a source of worry or concern.
- more than meets the eye Some hidden aspect to a situation.
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