skint
adj/skɪnt/ · SC /skʌnt/
Etymology The "penniless" sense is attested since 1925 and is derived from a variant of skinned. Note also the phrase skin a flint (“go to extreme lengths for the sake of gain or economy”), from the brittleness and hardness of flint which makes it almost impossible to remove just its skin without shattering it.
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Commonwealth, Ireland, UK, Slang Penniless, poor, impecunious, broke.
- There were a mixture of local people with cold, pinched faces and skint and harassed looking tourists sitting around fondling their itchsome facial hair, their tongues lolling into fizzy yellow pints of lager.2000, Tim Bradford, Is Shane MacGowan still alive?:
- Mr Grave proceeded to give a stern warning to those “errant pupils” who, against the rules, had been smuggling their mobile phones into school. This was just about everyone, though Zoe was far too skint to even dream of ever owning one.2012, David Walliams [pseudonym; David Edward Williams], Ratburger, London: HarperCollins Children’s Books, →ISBN:
1 more example
- About 2-3 weeks prior to Emma Finch’s death you told two of your friends Abi that “he hoped his Nan died soon because he was skint[…]and[…]that he thought he was the only one getting money in the will when she died”.2025 November 14, Michael Bowes, R v Joshua Powell, sentencing remarks, Paragraph 19:
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Slang skinned
- Derived terms
- skintly, skintness