skin
pronunciation
How to pronounce skin in British English:
UK [skɪn]
How to pronounce skin in American English:
US [skɪn]
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- Noun:
- a natural protective covering of the body; site of the sense of touch
- the tissue forming the hard outer layer (of e.g. a fruit)
- an outer surface (usually thin)
- body covering of a living animal
- a person's skin regarded as their life
- the rind of a fruit or vegetable
- a bag serving as a container for liquids; it is made from the skin of an animal
-
- Verb:
- climb awkwardly, as if by scrambling
- bruise, cut, or injure the skin or the surface of
- remove the bark of a tree
- strip the skin off
- strike against an object
Word Origin
- skin
- skin: [11] The ancestral English word for ‘skin’ is hide. Skin was borrowed at the end of the Old English period from Old Norse skinn (source of Swedish skin and Danish skind). The etymological notion underlying the word is of ‘peeling’ or ‘slicing’ off an outer layer (it goes back ultimately to a prehistoric Indo-European base *sken- ‘cut off’, which was an extension of *sek- ‘cut’, source of English section, sector, sickle, etc), and so it presumably referred originally to the pelts removed from hunted animals.=> section, segment, sickle
- skin (n.)
- c. 1200, "animal hide" (usually dressed and tanned), from Old Norse skinn "animal hide, fur," from Proto-Germanic *skintha- (cognates: Old English scinn (rare), Old High German scinten, German schinden "to flay, skin;" German dialectal schind "skin of a fruit," Flemish schinde "bark"), from PIE *sken- "to cut off" (cognates: Breton scant "scale of a fish," Irish scainim "I tear, I burst"), from root *sek- "to cut" (see section (n.)). Ful of fleissche Y was to fele, Now ... Me is lefte But skyn & boon. [hymn, c. 1430] The usual Anglo-Saxon word is hide (n.1). Meaning "epidermis of a living animal or person" is attested from early 14c.; extended to fruits, vegetables, etc. late 14c. Jazz slang sense of "drum" is from 1927. Meaning "a skinhead" is from 1970. As an adjective, it formerly had a slang sense of "cheating" (1868); sense of "pornographic" is attested from 1968. Skin deep is first attested in this: All the carnall beauty of my wife, Is but skin-deep. [Sir Thomas Overbury, "A Wife," 1613; the poem was a main motive for his murder] The skin of one's teeth as the narrowest of margins is attested from 1550s in the Geneva Bible literal translation of the Hebrew text in Job xix:20. To get under (someone's) skin "annoy" is from 1896. Skin-graft is from 1871. Skin merchant "recruiting officer" is from 1792.
- skin (v.)
- late 14c., "to remove the skin from" (originally of circumcision), from skin (n.). As "to have (a particular kind of) skin" from c. 1400. In 19c. U.S. colloquial use, "to strip, fleece, plunder;" hence skin-game, one in which one player has no chance against the others (as with a stacked deck), the type of con game played in a skin-house. Skin the cat in gymnastics is from 1845. Related: Skinned; skinning.
Synonym
cover rind coating crust hull overlay pellicle bark lamina covering sheath involucre aponeurosis husk case film pod peel coat shell membrane
slough hide fur cutis leather cuticle derma jacket fell fleece corium shagreen dermis pelt epidermis scarfskin
Example
- 1. Wear clothing to protect exposed skin .
- 2. An oil-free foundation is better for the skin .
- 3. This may prevent blisters or raw skin from developing .
- 4. Do not use the vegetable peeler , as its skin is very tough .
- 5. They are made from a soft polypropylene material and have lights inside a double skin .