skin - Wiktionary, the free dictionary


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Anatomy of the human skin
 
Moulted cicada skins

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”).

See also Dutch schinde (“bark”), dialectal German Schinde (“fruit peel”); also Breton skant (“scales”), Old Irish ceinn, Irish scainim (“I tear, burst”), Latin scindere (“to split, divide”), Sanskrit छिनत्ति (chinátti, “he splits”). Partially displaced native Old English hȳd (“skin, hide”), see hide. More at shed. Not related to shin.

skin (countable and uncountable, plural skins)

  2. (uncountable) The outer protective layer of the body of any animal, including of a human.

    He is so disgusting he makes my skin crawl.

    • 2020, Abi Daré, The Girl With The Louding Voice, Sceptre, page 184:

      Her skin is pale like chicken skin, after you have peel[ed] all the feathers.

  3. (uncountable) The outer protective layer of the fruit of a plant.
  4. (countable) The skin and fur of an individual animal used by humans for clothing, upholstery, etc.
  5. (countable) 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?

  7. (countable, computing, graphical user interface) 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.

  8. (countable, video games) An alternate appearance (texture map or geometry) for a character model in a video game.
  9. (countable, slang) Rolling paper for cigarettes.

    Pass me a skin, mate.

  10. (countable, slang) Clipping of skinhead.

    • 2017, Christian Picciolini, White American Youth:

      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.

  11. (Australia) A subgroup of Australian aboriginal people; such divisions are cultural and not related to an individual′s physical skin. [1]

    • 1984, Maxwell John Charlesworth, Howard Morphy, Diane Bell, Religion in Aboriginal Australia: An Anthology, page 361:

      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.

  12. (slang) Bare flesh, particularly bare breasts.

    Let me see a bit of skin.

  13. A vessel made of skin, used for holding liquids.

    • 1843, Richard Henry Horne, Orion:

      the Bacchic train,
      Who brought their skins of wine, and loaded poles
      That bent with mighty clusters of black grapes

  14. (nautical) That part of a sail, when furled, which remains on the outside and covers the whole.

    • (Can we date this quote?), “Textile Technology Digest”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name):

      The skin of the sail is made of stretch-resistant Mylar

  15. (nautical) 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.
  16. (aviation) The outer surface covering much of the wings and fuselage of an aircraft.
  17. A drink of whisky served hot.
  18. (slang, Ireland, British) person, chap

    He was a decent old skin.

    • 2019, Joe Murragh, Colin Barrett, 54:50 from the start, in Calm With Horses (film), spoken by Paudi (Ned Dennehy):

      PAUDI:”I fucking love the pair of ye! You’re good lads. You’re loyal skins”

  19. (UK, thieves slang, obsolete) A purse.

    • 1863, George William MacArthur Reynolds, The Mysteries of the Court of London, volume 3, page 86:

      […] and away I scampered with the tiddlywink-table, while Teddy Limber […] frisked the yokel of his yack and skin.

outer protective layer of the body of a person or animal

outer protective layer of fruit

skin and fur of an animal used by humans

congealed layer on the surface of a liquid

rolling paper for cigarettes

skinhead (clipping of)

subgroup within an Australian aboriginal people

nautical: covering outside the framing

Translations to be checked

skin (third-person singular simple present skins, present participle skinning, simple past and past participle skinned)

  1. (transitive) To injure the skin of.
    He fell off his bike and skinned his knee on the concrete.
  2. (transitive) To remove the skin and/or fur of an animal or a human.
    Coordinate terms: bone, gut, pluck, shear
  3. (colloquial) To high five.
  4. (transitive, computing, colloquial) To apply a skin to (a computer program).

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

  5. (UK, soccer, transitive) To use tricks to go past a defender.

    • 2011 January 30, Kevin Darlng, “Arsenal 2 - 1 Huddersfield”, in BBC‎[1]:

      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.

  6. (intransitive) To become covered with skin.

    A wound eventually skins over.

  7. (transitive) To cover with skin, or as if with skin; hence, to cover superficially.
  8. (US, slang, archaic) To produce, in recitation, examination, etc., the work of another for one's own, or to use cribs, memoranda, etc., which are prohibited.
  9. (slang, dated) To strip of money or property; to cheat.
  10. (intransitive, obsolete, slang) To sneak off.

to injure the skin of

to remove the skin of

to use a replacement image for the graphical user interface of

to become covered with skin

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

to produce the work of another for one's own, or to use cribs

  1. ^ 1994, Macquarie Aboriginal Words, Macquarie University, paperback →ISBN, Introduction.

skin

  1. star

From Norwegian ski +‎ -an (infinitive suffix).

skin

  1. (Luserna) to ski

skin n

  1. (Luserna) skiing

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

skin n (singular definite skinnet, not used in plural form)

  1. light, glare
  2. semblance

skin

  1. imperative of skinne

skin m or f (plural skins, diminutive skinnetje n)

  1. (computing) Skin
  2. Short for skinhead.

From skína (“to shine”).

skin n (genitive singular skins, nominative plural skin)

  1. shine, shimmer, brightness
    Declension of skin
n-s singular plural
indefinite definite indefinite definite
nominative skin skinið skin skinin
accusative skin skinið skin skinin
dative skini skininu skinum skinunum
genitive skins skinsins skina skinanna

skin

  1. Alternative form of skyn

skin

  1. inflection of skina:
    1. present
    2. imperative

From skīnan.

skīn n

  1. shine

Unadapted borrowing from English skin.

skin f (plural skins)

  1. (computing) skin (image used as the background of a graphical user interface)
  2. (countable, video games) skin (alternate appearance (texture map or geometry) for a 3D character model in a video game)

skin

  1. imperative of skina

From English skin.

skin

  1. (anatomy) skin

    • 1989, Buk Baibel long Tok Pisin, Port Moresby: Bible Society of Papua New Guinea, Jenesis 2:21:

      Orait God, Bikpela i mekim man i slip i dai tru. Na taim man i slip yet, God i kisim wanpela bun long banis bilong man na i pasim gen skin bilong dispela hap.

      →New International Version translation

skin (nominative plural skins)

  1. skin