skin means the outer protective layer of the body of any animal, including of a human. It carries an Arena rating of 1564, earned across 4 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, skin ranks #3,503 of 17,143 for Best Fossil-Poetry Words, #3,632 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words, #4,577 of 17,127 for Most Vivid Words, #6,109 of 17,142 for Most Ingenious Words.
skin is pronounced /skɪn/.
Why “skin” is a great word
The outer protective layer of an organism, whether the membranous covering of an animal body or the natural casing of a fruit. 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'). Unlike "hide," which speaks of a thick, worked pelt, or "peel," which is what one discards, skin is the living boundary itself. It is the papery translucence of a garlic clove, the faint blue roadmap of veins beneath a wrist, and the sun-darkened leather of a gardener's hands—the perishable frontier between the self and the relentless world.
Etymology
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”). Partially displaced native Old English hȳd (“skin, hide”), from which derives hide. Cognate with Dutch schinde (“bark”), dialectal German Schinde (“fruit peel”); also Breton skant (“scales”), Old Irish cenn (“covering, shell”), Irish scáin (“to tear, burst”), Latin scindō (“to split, divide”), Sanskrit छिनत्ति (chinátti, “to split”).
noun
- The outer protective layer of the body of any animal, including of a human.e.g.“He is so disgusting he makes my skin crawl.”
- The outer protective layer of the fruit of a plant.
- The skin and fur of an individual animal used by humans for clothing, upholstery, etc.e.g.“you know good leather, you know the best way to tan the hides and where to find the best skins” — 2011, Iris Gower, The Wild Seed, Transworld:
- A congealed layer on the surface of a liquid.e.g.“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.”
- A set of resources that modifies the appearance and/or layout of the graphical user interface of a computer program.e.g.“You can use this skin to change how the browser looks.”
- An alternate appearance (texture map or geometry) for a character model in a video game.e.g.“My friend likes to use a Spider-Man skin in Fortnite.”
- Rolling paper for cigarettes.e.g.“Pass me a skin, mate.”
- A subgroup of Australian aboriginal people.
- Bare flesh, particularly bare breasts.e.g.“Let me see a bit of skin.”
- A vessel made of skin, used for holding liquids.e.g.“the Bacchic train,
Who brought their skins of wine, and loaded poles
That bent with mighty clusters of black grapes” — 1843, Richard Henry Horne, Orion:
- That part of a sail, when furled, which remains on the outside and covers the whole.e.g.“The skin of the sail is made of stretch-resistant Mylar” — (Can we date this quote?), “Textile Technology Digest”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name):
- 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.
- The outer surface covering much of the wings and fuselage of an aircraft.
- A drink of whisky served hot.
- A person; chap.e.g.“He was a decent old skin.”
verb
- To injure the skin of.e.g.“He fell off his bike and skinned his knee on the concrete.”
- To remove the skin and/or fur of an animal or a human.
- To high five.
- To apply a skin to (a computer program).e.g.“Can I skin the application to put the picture of my cat on it?”
- To use tricks to go past a defender.
- To become covered with skin or a skin-like layer.e.g.“A wound eventually skins over.”
- To cover with skin, or as if with skin; hence, to cover superficially.e.g.“It will but skin and film the ulcerous place.” — c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggar
- To produce, in recitation, examination, etc., the work of another for one's own, or to use cribs, memoranda, etc., which are prohibited.
- To strip of money or property; to cheat.
- To sneak off.
- To remove the top layers of paint from, revealing parts of the underlying medium or canvas.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Words closest in meaning
By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.
- skinlike 66% match — Resembling skin or some aspect of it. vs skin →
- epidermis 65% match — The outer, protective layer of the skin of vertebrates. vs skin →
- cuticle 63% match — The outermost layer of the skin of vertebrates.; The strip of hardened skin at the base and sides of a fingernail or toenail. vs skin →
- skinned 61% match — Having skin. vs skin →
- corneum 60% match — The outermost layer of the skin. vs skin →
- skinfeel 59% match — The way that something feels against the skin. vs skin →
- derm 58% match — Animal skin. vs skin →
- ectoderm 57% match — The outermost of the three tissue layers in the embryo of a metazoan animal, which produces through development, the epidermis (skin) and nervous system of the adult. vs skin →