skin
Pluralskins (some meanings)
Pluralskins (some meanings)
- 1The outer protective layer covering the body of a human or other animal.
Cold weather often leaves her skin dry and cracked.
The doctor examined a patch of skin on his arm.
UsageOften with no a: dry skin, pale skin. Idioms: something makes your skin crawl; soaked to the skin.
- 2The protective outer covering of a fruit or vegetable.
The tomato's skin split as it ripened in the heat.
Many of the vitamins in an apple sit just beneath the skin.
UsageThin coverings are usually skin; thick ones, as on oranges and lemons, are more often peel or rind.
Similarpeel
- 3The hide of an individual animal, with or without its fur, removed for use in clothing, upholstery, and similar purposes.
The trapper stretched several beaver skins to dry by the fire.
A wolf skin hung across the back of his chair.
UsageOften after the animal: beaver skins, a wolf skin. Hide and pelt are close in meaning.
- 4A set of graphics or other files that changes the appearance of a computer program's interface, or of a character or item in a video game.
Players can buy a skin to change their avatar's outfit and colors.
The game released several limited-edition skins for the holiday event.
Note
Gamers usually use the word for a character or item rather than a whole interface. A game skin changes textures, sometimes the model itself, as when a player picks a Spider-Man skin in Fortnite. The same word also covers a program's window, and some games let skins restyle the interface, but most game skins dress a character or item on screen. The changes are cosmetic and may include sound.
- 5The outer covering or casing that forms the surface of a structure such as an aircraft, ship, rocket, or building.
The aircraft's aluminum skin must withstand huge pressure changes during flight.
Technicians inspect the fuselage skin for fatigue after many flights.
Similarcasing, covering, shell, sheathing
Note
On an aircraft it is the covering stretched over wings and fuselage, much as plating covers a ship's hull. In stressed-skin designs the surface is more than a wrapper: it carries a substantial share of the structural loads, so its condition matters to the whole airframe.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
- Aircraft skin covers the wings and fuselage. en.wikipedia.org
- Plating forms the outer covering of a ship's hull. usni.org
- In stressed-skin designs, the skin carries substantial structural loads. faasafety.gov
- The condition of structural skin affects airframe strength. faasafety.gov
Less common meanings
- 6To remove the skin from an animal, a fruit, or a vegetable, or, rarely, from a person.
The trappers skinned the deer they had caught that morning.
Workers skin the carcasses quickly in the processing plant.
UsageA common saying: there's more than one way to skin a cat, meaning a task can be done in several ways.
- 7A thin congealed layer that forms on the surface of a liquid.
A skin had formed over the paint left open overnight.
She stirred the gravy to stop a skin from forming.
UsageA skin forms on milk, paint or gravy as it stands.
Similarfilm
- 8
- 9
- 10To cover something with skin or a thin skin-like layer, or (of a wound or surface) to become covered with such a layer.
Frost skinned the puddles with a thin sheet of ice by morning.
Builders often skin a wooden frame with thin metal sheets before painting it.
Similarcoat, cover, clad, sheathe
Note
The covering verb has a famous figurative use. In Hamlet, Shakespeare writes that something "will but skin and film the ulcerous place": a surface closed over a sore that is still ulcerous beneath. That image captures the looser meaning, to cover superficially, hiding a problem rather than curing it.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- Shakespeare's Hamlet contains the quoted words; the character Hamlet speaks them. folger.edu
- The image describes a superficial covering concealing corruption that continues underneath. folger.edu
- 11
- 12A person, especially a man; a fellow or chap.
Everyone in the village agrees that the new priest is a good skin who would help anyone.
She married a decent skin from the next town.
UsageUsually with a warm adjective: a good skin, a decent skin.
Similarfellow, chap, guy, bloke, sort
Note
In the film Calm With Horses (2019), the crime boss Paudi tells the pair who work for him, "You're good lads. You're loyal skins," which shows the affectionate, comradely tone the word tends to carry.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- Calm With Horses is a film first shown in 2019. filmsandfestivals.britishcouncil.org
- 13Short for skinhead: a member of a youth culture known for shaved or very short hair and heavy boots.
By the early eighties, every skin at the club wore the same boots and suspenders.
A handful of skins drifted past the record shop after the show.
UsageDo not assume that someone called a skin is racist: the skinhead subculture includes both racist and anti-racist groups.
Note
In use it points to the skinhead subculture, not simply to a shaved head. Christian Picciolini's White American Youth (2017 edition) sets "the Atlantic City skins" beside "the oldschool skinheads," moving between the short and long forms freely.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- Christian Picciolini wrote White American Youth. hachettebookgroup.com
- The book juxtaposes the exact phrases 'the Atlantic City skins' and 'the oldschool skinheads'. en.wiktionary.org
- 14A thin sheet of paper used for rolling a cigarette by hand.
Pass me a skin so I can roll one.
The kiosk sold tobacco, lighters, and packs of skins.
UsageIn neutral writing, rolling paper is safer, since skin up can mean roll a cannabis cigarette.
- 15A container made from animal hide, used for holding water, wine, or other liquids.
The shepherd carried a skin of goat's milk over his shoulder.
They hung skins of wine from the saddle for the long ride.
UsageUsually a skin of + liquid: a skin of wine, skins of water.
Note
The container is made from animal hide sewn to hold liquid, so the noun works like bottle or jug, followed by of and its contents: a skin of wine, skins of water. Richard Henry Horne's Orion (1843) gives it a literary setting, with the Bacchic train bringing "their skins of wine" alongside poles bent with grapes.
- 16To get past an opposing defender using skillful tricks or feints.
He skinned the full-back with a quick stepover near the corner flag.
Good wingers skin defenders on the touchline all afternoon.
UsageThe object is the defender, not the ball: skin a full-back.
Similarbeat, elude, evade, outmaneuver
Note
Football commentary's word for beating an opponent with trickery. Kevin Darling's BBC report of Arsenal 2–1 Huddersfield (2011) has Arshavin facing a young right-back and notes that he "skinned the youngster at the first opportunity."
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- The BBC report titled Arsenal 2–1 Huddersfield was published in 2011. en.wiktionary.org
- The report describes Arshavin facing a young right-back. en.wiktionary.org
- The report uses the quoted wording about Arshavin. en.wiktionary.org
- 17Short form of skin up: to climb a slope on skis or a splitboard fitted with climbing skins, or to push a bicycle uphill.
We skinned to the ridge at dawn and skied fresh powder all the way down.
Before the lifts open, a few locals skin to the top of the run for exercise.
- 18A kinship division within an Australian Aboriginal community that defines relationships and marriage rules among its members.
A person's skin determines their place in the wider family network.
Marriage rules depend on which skin each partner belongs to.
Note
A kinship term of Australian English. Each person belongs to a named skin, sometimes called a skin name, and the skins regulate descent, marriage and obligation. A moiety is a related but broader division, one of two halves. The phrase wrong skins carries the force of the marriage rule, as in Charlesworth, Morphy and Bell (1984), where an older brother insists, "We can take wrong skins."
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- Moieties and skin groups are related but distinct divisions: a moiety is one of two halves, which may contain several skin groups. abc.net.au
- Wrong skins refers to incompatibility under traditional marriage rules. clc.org.au
- 19To strip someone of their money or property, especially by cheating.
Card sharps would skin unwary travelers in the back rooms of taverns.
He was skinned of his last dollar before he left the saloon.
UsageTakes the victim as object, with of for what is lost: skinned of his money.
Similarfleece, swindle, cheat, rook, con
Note
Dated slang that grows out of stripping a hide: the victim is left as bare as a flayed carcass.
- 20To cheat in an exam or recitation by passing off another's work as one's own or by using forbidden notes.
- 21A purse or small bag used for carrying money.
Note
British thieves' cant, the private vocabulary of pickpockets and swindlers, gave skin this meaning, and it has long since dropped out of use. George William MacArthur Reynolds still puts it in a thief's world in The Mysteries of the Court of London (first serialized from 1848), where a yokel is "frisked" of his skin.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
- British thieves' cant was a private vocabulary used by criminals, including pickpockets and swindlers. en.wikipedia.org
- Skin meaning a purse or money bag was used in thieves' cant. gutenberg.org
- George William MacArthur Reynolds wrote The Mysteries of the Court of London. archive.org
- The novel uses frisked and skin in describing a yokel being robbed. en.wiktionary.org
- 22To slip away quietly and unnoticed; to sneak off.
- 23To slap another person's raised open hand as a greeting or in celebration.
- 24The outer portion of a furled sail that remains on the outside and covers the whole.
- 25A serving of whisky served hot.
Showing meanings only.
Practice
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Origin
Skin comes from Middle English skyn, from Old English scinn, borrowed from Old Norse skinn ('animal hide'). This traces back through Proto-Germanic to a Proto-Indo-European root meaning 'to split off' or 'to cut'. It partly displaced the native Old English word hȳd (source of 'hide'), and it is related to Latin scindō ('to split') and Sanskrit chinátti ('to split').
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 5 facts
- Skin comes from Middle English skyn, from Old English scinn. en.wiktionary.org
- Old English scinn was borrowed from Old Norse skinn, meaning 'animal hide'. en.wiktionary.org
- The ancestry extends through Proto-Germanic to a Proto-Indo-European root meaning 'to split off'. en.wiktionary.org
- Skin partly displaced native Old English hȳd, the source of hide. en.wiktionary.org
- Skin is related to Latin scindō and Sanskrit chinátti, both meaning 'to split'. en.wiktionary.org