Word.ws English Dictionary

skin

/skɪn/

skin noun: the outer protective layer of the body of any animal, including of a human. Also the clipping of skinhead.

skin: the outer protective layer of the body of any animal, including of a human
Image: Bot1036, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

skin (countable and uncountable, plural skins)

  1. (uncountable) The outer protective layer of the body of any animal, including of a human.
    • He is so disgusting he makes my skin crawl.
    • Her skin is pale like chicken skin, after you have peel[ed] all the feathers.2020, Abi Daré, The Girl With The Louding Voice, Sceptre, page 184
  2. (uncountable) The outer protective layer of the fruit of a plant.
    Synonyms:
    peel, pericarp
  3. (countable) The skin and fur of an individual animal used by humans for clothing, upholstery, etc.
    • you know good leather, you know the best way to tan the hides and where to find the best skins2011, Iris Gower, The Wild Seed, Transworld
    Synonyms:
    hide, pelt
  4. (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?
    Synonyms:
    film
  5. (countable) 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.
  6. (countable) An alternate appearance (texture map or geometry) for a character model in a video game.
    • My friend likes to use a Spider-Man skin in Fortnite.
    • However, the misconception regarding skin hitboxes was created by a subset of players who believed that wearing thinner skins enhanced their gameplay.2024 March 16, Rishabh Sabarwal, “Fortnite hitboxes: Do skins have a competitive advantage?”, in Dexerto, archived from the original on 05 Aug 2024
  7. (countable, slang) Rolling paper for cigarettes.
    • Pass me a skin, mate.
  8. (Australia) A subgroup of Australian aboriginal people.
    • 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.1984, Maxwell John Charlesworth, Howard Morphy, Diane Bell, Religion in Aboriginal Australia: An Anthology, page 361
    Synonyms:
    moiety
  9. (slang) Bare flesh, particularly bare breasts.
    • Let me see a bit of skin.
  10. A vessel made of skin, used for holding liquids.
    • the Bacchic train,
      Who brought their skins of wine, and loaded poles
      That bent with mighty clusters of black grapes1843, Richard Henry Horne, Orion
  11. That part of a sail, when furled, which remains on the outside and covers the whole.
    • 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)
  12. 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.
Show 5 more meaningsShow fewer meanings
  1. The outer surface covering much of the wings and fuselage of an aircraft.
  2. A drink of whisky served hot.
  3. (Ireland, UK, slang) A person; chap.
    • He was a decent old skin.
    • PAUDI:”I fucking love the pair of ye! You’re good lads. You’re loyal skins”2019, Joe Murragh, Colin Barrett, 54:50 from the start, in Calm With Horses (film), spoken by Paudi (Ned Dennehy)
  4. (UK, obsolete, thieves' cant) A purse.
    • […] and away I scampered with the tiddlywink-table, while Teddy Limber […] frisked the yokel of his yack and skin.1863, George William MacArthur Reynolds, The Mysteries of the Court of London, volume 3, page 86
  5. A member of the team not wearing shirts, in a shirts and skins game.

Verb

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.
    Synonyms:
    flay, fleece, flense, scalp
  3. (colloquial) To high five.
  4. (colloquial, transitive) To apply a skin to (a computer program).
    • Can I skin the application to put the picture of my cat on it?
  5. (UK, transitive) To use tricks to go past a defender.
    • 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...2011 January 30, Kevin Darlng, “Arsenal 2 - 1 Huddersfield”, in BBC
  6. (intransitive) To become covered with skin or a skin-like layer.
    • A wound eventually skins over.
    • Lefotver acrylic paint will often skin as it partially dries.
  7. (transitive) To cover with skin, or as if with skin; hence, to cover superficially.
    • 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...
  8. (US, archaic, slang) To produce, in recitation, examination, etc., the work of another for one's own, or to use cribs, memoranda, etc., which are prohibited.
  9. (dated, slang) To strip of money or property; to cheat.
  10. (intransitive, obsolete, slang) To sneak off.
  11. (transitive) To remove the top layers of paint from, revealing parts of the underlying medium or canvas.

Also used as

skin is also the clipping of skinhead.

skin is also the clipping of drumskin.

skin is also the abbreviation of skin up.

skin meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

skin in Hindi

outer protective layer of the body of a person or animal
त्वचा tvacā, चमड़ी camṛī, चमड़ा camṛā
outer protective layer of fruit
छिलका chilkā
skin and fur of an animal used by humans
चमड़ा camṛā
to injure the skin of
छिलना chilnā

skin in Tamil

outer protective layer of the body of a person or animal
தோல் tōl

skin in Marathi

outer protective layer of the body of a person or animal
त्वचा tvacā

skin in Urdu

outer protective layer of the body of a person or animal
جِلْد jild, تْوَچا tvacā, پوسْت post
More languagesFewer languages
skin in Bengali
ত্বক tok, চামড়া camṛa
skin in Telugu
చర్మము carmamu, త్వచము tvacamu, తోలు tōlu, పొర pora
skin in Malayalam
തൊലി toli, ചർമ്മം caṟmmaṁ, തോല് tōlŭ, പാട pāṭa
skin in Kannada
ಚರ್ಮ carma
skin in Punjabi
ਖੱਲ khalla
skin in Gujarati
ચામડી cāmḍī, ત્વચા tvacā
skin in Odia
ଚର୍ମ carma
skin in Sanskrit
त्वच tvaca, कृत्ति kṛtti
skin in Sinhala
හම hama
skin in Assamese
ছাল sal
skin in Nepali
छाला chālā
skin in Tagalog
balat, balatan, maglabos
skin in Arabic
جِلْد jild, بَشَرة bašara, جلد gild, بشرة bašra
skin in Malay
kulit, kekulit
skin in Indonesian
kulit
skin in Persian
پوسْت pōst, چَرْم čarm, جِلْد jild, مَشْک mašk
skin in Thai
ผิวหนัง pǐu-nǎng, หนัง nǎng
skin in Vietnamese
da
skin in Myanmar
အရေ a.re
Kashmiri
ژَم ċam, مٕسلہٕ mụslụ, دِیٛل diel, جَتھ jath

Examples of skin in a sentence

  • The exposed workers had some kind of disease that left their skin splotchy and their faces withered.
  • A Japanese will typically have black hair, brown eyes, and pale skin.
  • Garments made of certain new materials breathe well and keep the skin relatively dry during exercise.

All 40 example sentences with skin

Synonyms of skin

5 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of skin

Forms of skin

Noun
pluralskins
alternative form (obsolete)skinne
Verb
third-person singular presentskins
present participleskinning
past participleskinned
pastskinned

Past tense of skin: skinned

Plural of skin: skins

Origin of skin

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”).

Words formed from skin

Phrases with skin

171 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with skin

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about skin

What does skin mean?
Skin means the outer protective layer of the body of any animal, including of a human.
What is skin in Hindi?
Skin in Hindi is त्वचा (tvacā), चमड़ी (camṛī), चमड़ा (camṛā). See Skin meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is skin?
Skin can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce skin?
Skin is pronounced /skɪn/.
What is the plural of skin?
The plural of skin is skins.

Words near skin in the dictionary

  1. skimps
  2. skimpy
  3. skims
  4. skims off
  5. skims through
  6. skin
  7. skin a flint
  8. skin and blister
  9. skin and blisters
  10. skin and bone
  11. skin and bones

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: skin (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-skin.ogg, en-uk-skin.ogg, en-au-skin.ogg.

Cite this entry: “skin.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/skin. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.