skin
(skĭn)
[Middle English, from Old Norse skinn.]
noun
- The membranous tissue forming the external covering or integument of an animal and consisting in vertebrates of the epidermis and dermis.
- An animal pelt, especially the comparatively pliable pelt of a small or young animal: a tent made of goat skins.
- A usually thin, closely adhering outer layer: the skin of a peach; a sausage skin; the skin of an aircraft.
- A container for liquids that is made of animal skin.
- Music A drumhead.
- Informal One's life or physical survival: They lied to save their skins.
verb: skinned, skin·ning, skins.
transitive verb
- To remove skin from: skinned and gutted the rabbit.
- To bruise, cut, or injure the skin or surface of: She skinned her knee.
- To remove (an outer covering); peel off: skin off the thin bark.
- To cover with or as if with skin: skin the framework of a canoe.
- Slang To fleece; swindle.
intransitive verb
- To become covered with or as if with skin: In January the pond skins over with ice.
- To pass with little room to spare: We barely skinned by.
adjective
Slang- Of, relating to, or depicting pornography: skin magazines.
idioms
- by the skin of (one's) teeth
- By the smallest margin.
- get under (someone's) skin
- To irritate or stimulate; provoke. To preoccupy someone; become an obsession.
- under the skin
- Beneath the surface; fundamentally: enemies who are really brothers under the skin.
derivatives
- skińless
- adjective
