skin

noun, verb — 31 senses

skin

noun

/skɪn/

Etymology From Middle English skyn, skinn, from Old English scinn, from Old Norse skinn (“animal hide”), from Proto-Germanic *skinþą, from Proto-Indo-European *sken- (“to split off”), nasal variant of *skeh₁i-d- (“to cut”). Partially displaced native Old English hȳd (“skin, hide”), from which derives hide. Cognate with Dutch schinde (“bark”), dialectal German Schinde (“fruit peel”); also Breton skant (“scales”), Old Irish cenn (“covering, shell”), Irish scáin (“to tear, burst”), Latin scindō (“to split, divide”), Sanskrit छिनत्ति (chinátti, “to split”).

19 senses
  1. 1The outer protective layer of the body of any animal…
  2. 2The outer protective layer of the fruit of a plant.
  3. 3The skin and fur of an individual animal used by humans…
  4. 4A congealed layer on the surface of a liquid.
  5. 5A set of resources that modifies the appearance and/or…
  6. 6An alternate appearance (texture map or geometry) for a…
  7. 7Rolling paper for cigarettes.
  8. 8Clipping of skinhead.
  9. 9A subgroup of Australian aboriginal people.
  10. 10Bare flesh, particularly bare breasts.
  11. 11Clipping of drumskin
  12. 12A vessel made of skin, used for holding liquids.
  13. 13That part of a sail, when furled, which remains on the…
  14. 14The covering, as of planking or iron plates, outside the…
  15. 15The outer surface covering much of the wings and…
  16. 16A drink of whisky served hot.
  17. 17A person; chap.
  18. 18A purse.
  19. 19A member of the team not wearing shirts, in a shirts and…
1

The outer protective layer of the body of any animal, including of a human.

  • He is so disgusting he makes my skin crawl.
  • Her skin is pale like chicken skin, after you have peel[ed] all the feathers.2020, Abi Daré, The Girl With The Louding Voice, Sceptre, page 184:
2

The outer protective layer of the fruit of a plant.

3

The skin and fur of an individual animal used by humans for clothing, upholstery, etc.

  • you know good leather, you know the best way to tan the hides and where to find the best skins2011, Iris Gower, The Wild Seed, Transworld:
4

A congealed layer on the surface of a liquid.

  • In order to get to the rest of the paint in the can, you′ll have to remove the skin floating on top of it.
  • Do you eat the skin on custard?
5

Computing, Engineering, Graphical user interface, Mathematics, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Sciences A set of resources that modifies the appearance and/or layout of the graphical user interface of a computer program.

  • You can use this skin to change how the browser looks.
6

Video games An alternate appearance (texture map or geometry) for a character model in a video game.

  • My friend likes to use a Spider-Man skin in Fortnite.
  • However, the misconception regarding skin hitboxes was created by a subset of players who believed that wearing thinner skins enhanced their gameplay.2024 March 16, Rishabh Sabarwal, “Fortnite hitboxes: Do skins have a competitive advantage?”, in Dexerto, archived from the original on 05 Aug 2024:
7

Slang Rolling paper for cigarettes.

  • Pass me a skin, mate.
8

Abbreviation, Clipping, Slang Clipping of skinhead.

  • By the end of the show, fights would break out all over the place: the Atlantic City skins against the crew from Philly; the oldschool skinheads feuding with overzealous fresh-cuts.2017, Christian Picciolini, White American Youth:
9

Australia A subgroup of Australian aboriginal people.

  • The younger brother questions the correctness of the pursuit of the girls. "They may be of the wrong subsection," he suggests. "We can take wrong skins," says the older brother, but the younger still holds back.1984, Maxwell John Charlesworth, Howard Morphy, Diane Bell, Religion in Aboriginal Australia: An Anthology, page 361:
10

Slang Bare flesh, particularly bare breasts.

  • Let me see a bit of skin.
11

Abbreviation, Clipping Clipping of drumskin

12

A vessel made of skin, used for holding liquids.

  • the Bacchic train, Who brought their skins of wine, and loaded poles That bent with mighty clusters of black grapes1843, Richard Henry Horne, Orion:
13

Nautical, Transport That part of a sail, when furled, which remains on the outside and covers the whole.

  • The skin of the sail is made of stretch-resistant Mylar(Can we date this quote?), “Textile Technology Digest”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name):
14

Nautical, Transport The covering, as of planking or iron plates, outside the framing, forming the sides and bottom of a vessel; the shell; also, a lining inside the framing.

15

Aeronautics, Aerospace, Aviation, Business, Engineering, Natural sciences, Physical sciences The outer surface covering much of the wings and fuselage of an aircraft.

16

A drink of whisky served hot.

17

Ireland, UK, Slang A person; chap.

  • He was a decent old skin.
  • PAUDI:”I fucking love the pair of ye! You’re good lads. You’re loyal skins”2019, Joe Murragh, Colin Barrett, 54:50 from the start, in Calm With Horses (film), spoken by Paudi (Ned Dennehy):
18

UK, Obsolete A purse.

  • […] and away I scampered with the tiddlywink-table, while Teddy Limber […] frisked the yokel of his yack and skin.1863, George William MacArthur Reynolds, The Mysteries of the Court of London, volume 3, page 86:
19

Hobbies, Lifestyle, Sports A member of the team not wearing shirts, in a shirts and skins game.

Derived terms
269 termsall skin and bones, bareskin, bare-skin, batskin, bearskin, beauty is only skin deep, beaverskin, beetleskin, birdskin, blackskin, blackskinned, boarskin, bronzed skin disease, brown-point shield skin longirostris, brownskin, buffalo-skin, butterfly skin, by the skin of one's teeth, capeskin, caribouskin, catskin, chicken skin, chronic skin-picking, cleanskin, clean skin, clearskin, climbing skin, collect skin, coltskin, combination skin, combo skin, comfortable in one's own skin, comfortable in one's skin, coonskin, coon-skin cap, coon-skin hat, cowskin, darkskin, deer-skin, dickskin, dogskin, don't sell the skin till you have caught the bear, dragonskin, drakeskin, drumskin, eelskin, elephant skin, elkskin, e-skin, fawnskin, fishskin, fish-skin disease, fish skin, fish-skin, Fish-skin Tartar, foreskin, foxskin, frogskin, get underneath someone's skin, get under someone's skin, ghost skin, gimme some skin, give some skin to, glabrous skin, goldbeater's skin, gold-beater's skin, gold skin, gooseskin, grapeskin, greenskin, grow some skin, hare-skin, hogskin, horseskin, hyson skin, in one's bare skin, it's no skin off my back, jump in one's skin, kidskin, king skin, kipskin, lay some skin on, leopardskin, light-skin, lightskin, lionskin, lizardskin, lumpy skin disease, make one's skin crawl, make someone's skin crawl, make someone's skin creep, milk skin, milliskin, mooseskin, muleskin, niggerskin, nonskin, no skin off my nose, no skin off one's back, no skin off one's nose, no skin off one's teeth, oilskin, onionskin, onion skin, otterskin, out of one's skin, outskin, oxskin, peeling skin syndrome, plastiskin, play the skin flute, plebeskin, poly skin, ponyskin, poopskin, porcelain skin, potato skin, potato skins, rabbitskin, ramskin, ratskin, red burning skin syndrome, redskin, redskinned, redskin onion, red skin syndrome, reskin, rolling skin disease, rough-skin plum, save one's skin, save someone's skin, scarf-skin, shed skin, sheep-skin, shirts and skins, shitskin, show skin, show some skin, silver skin, silverskin, skin a flint, skin and blister, skin and bone, skin and bones, skin and grin, skin-art, skin art, skin back, skin beetle, skinbound, skinbow, skinbyrd, skin cancer, skincare, skin care, skin cell, skin color, skin colour, skin-crawling, skin cream, skin-deep, skin disease, skin-dive, skin-diver, skin diving, skin effect, skinema, Skinemax, skin fade, skin fasting, skinfeel, skinflick, skin-flick, skin flick, skinflint, skinfluencer, skin flute, skinfold, skinfolk, skin food, skin forming alloy, skin fragility syndrome, skinful, skingirl, skin glue, skin graft, skin grafting, skin group, skin-group, skinhead, skin hunger, skinimalism, skin in the game, skin job, skinless, skinlike, skin magazine, skin-mag, skin mag, skin merchant, skin movie, skinnable, skin name, skinny, skinny-dip, skin of the teeth, skin-on, skin orgasm, skin-picking disorder, skin-pop, skinpop, skinship, skin signs, skinsuit, skintag, skin-tag, skin tag, skintern, skin-tight, skintight, skin tone, skintone, skin trade, skin type, skin virgin, skinwalk, skin-walker, skinwalker, skinwalking, skin wool, skin worm, ski skin, slinkskin, slipskin, smoothskin, snow skin mooncake, soaked to the skin, solar skin, stagskin, staphylococcal scalded skin syndrome, sticky skin syndrome, stiff skin syndrome, strawberry skin, swanskin, thick skin, thickskin, thin skin, tigerskin, toadskin, tofu skin, turnskin, underskin, unskin, veal-skin, vealskin, walking skin cancer, waste of skin, weaselskin, whiteskin, whiteskinned, white skin privilege, within an inch of one's skin, with the skin of one's teeth, with whole skin, wolf in a lamb's skin, wolfskin, woolskin, wormskin, wrinkly skin syndrome
Related terms
cutaneous, cutis, dermis, epidermis
Hyponyms
banana skin, buckskin, calfskin, cumskin, deerskin, doeskin, goatskin, goose skin, lambskin, loinskin, moleskin, pigskin, sealskin, second skin, sharkskin, sheepskin, snakeskin, waterskin, wineskin, yakskin

skin

verb

Etymology From Middle English skyn, skinn, from Old English scinn, from Old Norse skinn (“animal hide”), from Proto-Germanic *skinþą, from Proto-Indo-European *sken- (“to split off”), nasal variant of *skeh₁i-d- (“to cut”). Partially displaced native Old English hȳd (“skin, hide”), from which derives hide. Cognate with Dutch schinde (“bark”), dialectal German Schinde (“fruit peel”); also Breton skant (“scales”), Old Irish cenn (“covering, shell”), Irish scáin (“to tear, burst”), Latin scindō (“to split, divide”), Sanskrit छिनत्ति (chinátti, “to split”).

12 senses
  1. 1To injure the skin of.
  2. 2To remove the skin and/or fur of an animal or a human.
  3. 3To high five.
  4. 4To apply a skin to (a computer program).
  5. 5To use tricks to go past a defender.
  6. 6To become covered with skin or a skin-like layer.
  7. 7To cover with skin, or as if with skin; hence, to cover…
  8. 8To produce, in recitation, examination, etc., the work…
  9. 9To strip of money or property; to cheat.
  10. 10To sneak off.
  11. 11To remove the top layers of paint from, revealing parts…
  12. 12Short for skin up (“travel uphill on skis, snowboard, or…
1

To injure the skin of.

  • He fell off his bike and skinned his knee on the concrete.
2

To remove the skin and/or fur of an animal or a human.

3

Colloquial To high five.

4

Computing, Engineering, Mathematics, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Sciences Colloquial To apply a skin to (a computer program).

  • Can I skin the application to put the picture of my cat on it?
5

Ball games, Games, Hobbies, Lifestyle, Soccer, Sports UK To use tricks to go past a defender.

  • The Russian, sometimes out of sorts in recent weeks, was seeing plenty of the ball on the left-hand side up against Hunt, a 20-year-old right-back making his first Huddersfield start. Arshavin skinned the youngster at the first opportunity and crossed for Bendtner, who could not direct his close-range effort on target.2011 January 30, Kevin Darlng, “Arsenal 2 - 1 Huddersfield”, in BBC:
6

To become covered with skin or a skin-like layer.

  • A wound eventually skins over.
  • Lefotver acrylic paint will often skin as it partially dries.
7

To cover with skin, or as if with skin; hence, to cover superficially.

  • It will but skin and film the ulcerous place.c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iv]:
8

US, Archaic, Slang To produce, in recitation, examination, etc., the work of another for one's own, or to use cribs, memoranda, etc., which are prohibited.

9

Dated, Slang To strip of money or property; to cheat.

10

Obsolete, Slang To sneak off.

11

Art, Arts To remove the top layers of paint from, revealing parts of the underlying medium or canvas.

12

Abbreviation Short for skin up (“travel uphill on skis, snowboard, or bicycle”)

Derived terms
deskin, enskin, skinflint, skinnable, skinable, skinner, skinnery, skin someone alive, skin the cat, skin the lamb, skin up, there are many ways to skin a cat, there's more than one way to skin a cat, thick-skinned, thin-skinned, tough-skinned

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.

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