skinny
/ˈskɪni/
skinny adjective: thin, generally in a negative sense (as opposed to slim, which is thin in a positive sense).
Adjective
skinny (comparative skinnier, superlative skinniest)
- Thin, generally in a negative sense (as opposed to slim, which is thin in a positive sense).
- Her recent weight loss has made her look rather skinny than slender
- Of food or a beverage, having reduced fat or calories.
- skinny flat white
- ...into the skinny chocolate milk?1974, National Fruit & Syrup Manufacturers Assn, Dairy & ice cream field, Volume 157, Issues 1-6 (cooking), page 45
- Naked; nude (chiefly used in the phrase skinny dipping).
- Let's take our clothes oft" and go swimming skinny.1972, Robert Woodruff Anderson, Solitaire: Double solitaire, page 53
- We never swam skinny in the river like the hippy kids on the farm across the railway tracks.2000, Linda Rogers, Say my name: the memoirs of Charlie Louie, page 25
- Tight-fitting.
- skinny jeans
- Synonym of thin (“type of shot where the ball is struck by the bottom part of the club head”).
- Synonyms:
- thin
Noun
skinny (plural skinnies)
- The details or facts; especially, those obtained by gossip or rumor.
- She called to get the skinny on the latest goings-on in the club.
- A state of nakedness; nudity.
- Again, she appears nude whilst dipping in the skinny, but this time, instead of being eaten by a shark or a bear, she encounters a Japanese submarine2004, Mr. Skin, Mr. Skin's Skincyclopedia, page 34
- "Nobody would bother peeking these days," she said ruefully, "in bathing suits or in the skinny."2009, Susan Wittig Albert, Wormwood, page 90
- A low-fat serving of coffee.
- A skinny being.
- "Either a skinny had judged (correctly) that it was worth one of their buildings to try for one of us, or one of my own mates was getting mighty careless with fireworks" .."A congregation in church — a skinny flophouse — maybe even their defense headquarters. All I knew was that it was a very big...1959, Robert Heinlein, Starship Troopers, page 10
- An obstacle for a horse to jump over, consisting of a narrow fence.
Verb
skinny (third-person singular simple present skinnies, present participle skinnying, simple past and past participle skinnied)
- To reduce or cut down.
- Like an accordion at a country wedding producing sweet-and-sour notes, some importers are expanding their U.S. retail automotive operations while others are skinnying down.1982, Ward's Auto World, volume 18, numbers 1-6, page 65
- By the end of the chapter, we will have (hopefully) skinnied the list of contenders further (perhaps there will be none left).1996, Kevin Dowd, Getting Connected: The Internet at 56K and Up, page 25
skinny meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
skinny in Hindi
- thin
- पतला patlā
skinny in Tamil
- skinny, bony, skin and bones
- எலும்பும்தோலுமாக elumpumtōlumāka
skinny in Urdu
- thin
- پتلا patlā
skinny in Bengali
- খুব রোগা, পাতলা
More languagesFewer languages
- skinny in Malayalam
- തോലുപോലുള്ള, തോലുകൊണ്ടുള്ള
- skinny in Kannada
- ಅತ್ಯಂತ ತೆಳುವಾದ, ಸಣಕಲಾದ, ಬಡಕಲಾದ, ಮೂಳೆ ಬಿಟ್ಟುಕೊಂಡಿರುವ
- skinny in Arabic
- نَحِيف naḥīf
- skinny in Indonesian
- kurus
- skinny in Persian
- لاغر lâġar
- skinny in Thai
- ผอม pɔ̌ɔm
- skinny in Vietnamese
- gầy, ốm, ròm, còm
Examples of skinny in a sentence
- Also bring me three quarts of ‘skinny’ milk.1982, Mykola Ponedilok, Funny tears: short stories (history), page 186:
- “All right,” said Katz, who, waiting on his skinny milk latte, turned to snap his fingers at the only waiter in the room.2008, Sydney Bauer, Undertow (fiction), →ISBN, page 387:
- People always order a "skinny" margarita without knowing exactly what that means for the ingredients.2019, Fancy AF Cocktails:
- When I went in again, the desirable alien was in bed with eyelids closed [...], obviously sleeping skinny, to employ her own term for it.1994, Geoffrey Atheling Wagner, A singular passion: a novel, page 200:
Synonyms of skinny
Forms of skinny
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | skinnier |
| superlative | skinniest |
| Noun | |
| plural | skinnies |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | skinnies |
| present participle | skinnying |
| past participle | skinnied |
| past | skinnied |
Origin of skinny
From Middle English skinny (“resembling skin”), equivalent to skin + -y. The meaning associated with lack of fat or muscle possibly derives from the phrase skin and bones; the meaning associated with nudity refers to the exposed skin.
Words formed from skinny
- skinny down
- skinny out
- skinny pig
- skinny up
- skinnily
- skinniness
- skinny as a rail
- skinny bitch
- skinny dipper
- skinny-dipper
- skinny-dipping
- skinny dip
- skinny-dip
- skinny diving
- skinny drink of water
- skinny fat
- skinnyish
- skinny jab
- skinny legend
- skinny Liz
- skinny malink
- skinny-malinky
- skinny Minnie
- skinny mirror
- skinnyscraper
- skinny shaming
- superskinny
- unskinny
Phrases with skinny
Words that rhyme with skinny
Questions about skinny
- What does skinny mean?
- Skinny means thin, generally in a negative sense (as opposed to slim, which is thin in a positive sense).
- What is skinny in Hindi?
- Skinny in Hindi is पतला (patlā). See Skinny meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use skinny in a sentence?
- Also bring me three quarts of ‘skinny’ milk.
- What part of speech is skinny?
- Skinny can be an adjective, a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce skinny?
- Skinny is pronounced /ˈskɪni/.
Words near skinny in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: skinny (page history and authors); எலும்பும்தோலுமாக (Tamil) (page history and authors); skinny (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); skinny (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); skinny (Kannada Wiktionary) (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-skinny.ogg.
Cite this entry: “skinny.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/skinny. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.