Word.ws English Dictionary

skinning a flint

skinning a flint is the present participle and gerund of skin a flint.

Meaning of skin a flint

Verb

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

  1. (excessive, figuratively) Go to great lengths to save or gain something, particularly money.
    • Deed, it wasn't Jane, for she just hates ye; she always says ye're an ould miser, an' ye'd skin a flint.Fitzpatrick, Kathleen (1937), The Weans at Rowallan, page 54
  2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see skin, a, flint.
    • The old women used to say that he would have skinned a flint to have saved a halfpenny, if he had spoilt a sixpenny knife in doing it.Miller, Thomas (1847), The Boy's Spring Book, page 33

Questions about skinning a flint

What is skinning a flint the present participle and gerund of?
Skinning a flint is the present participle and gerund of skin a flint.

Words near skinning a flint in the dictionary

  1. skinnily
  2. skinnin'
  3. skinniness
  4. skinninesses
  5. skinning
  6. skinning a flint
  7. skinning and grinning
  8. skinning back
  9. skinning someone alive
  10. skinning the cat
  11. skinning the lamb

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: skinning a flint (page history and authors); skin a flint (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.

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