英语词汇“to the skin”的英英意思、用法、释义、翻译、读音、例句、短语、词组-英语词典

Phrases

P1. In metonymic uses denoting a person's life, identity, etc.

a. In miscellaneous uses concerning a person's identity, character, or behaviour, esp. to be in (also get into) someone's skin. Cf. to get under a person's skin at Phrases 12b.

ΚΠ

1372 in C. Brown Relig. Lyrics 14th Cent. (1924) 88 I wolde ben clad in cristis skyn, Þat ran so longe on blode.

1573 C. Hollyband French Schoole-maister in M. St. C. Byrne Elizabethan Home (1949) 23 I would not be in thy skinne for twentie crownes of golde.

?1608 S. Lennard tr. P. Charron Of Wisdome ii. ii. 252 We must discerne the skinne from the shirt.

1665 R. South Serm. preached before Court 38 If Mens Religion lies no deeper then their skin.

1738 J. Swift Compl. Coll. Genteel Conversat. 46 Why, where should she be? You must needs know; she's in her Skin.

1790 F. Burney Diary Feb. (1842) V. 93 I shall pity those men when the book comes out!—I would not be in their skins!

1828 W. Carr Dial. Craven (ed. 2) (at cited word) ‘To be in another's skin,’ to be in his place or situation.

a1850 D. G. Rossetti Dante & Circle (1874) i. 221 Him who sticks so in his skin.

a1850 D. G. Rossetti Dante & Circle (1874) i. 224 Messer Angiolieri's slipped his skin.

1886 G. B. Shaw How to become Musical Critic (1960) 115 The one [sc. actor] gets into the skin of one character: the other only puts on the clothes of twelve.

1916 J. R. Towse Sixty Years of Theater xxiii. 361 In the church scene, Miss Rehan won her audience by a fine display of honest womanly indignation, but she never really ‘got into the skin’ of Beatrice.

1963 Listener 28 Mar. 564/2 Those who enjoy the fun of getting inside someone else's skin.

2003 Time 19 May 31/2 The Democrats..will need a candidate who is easy in his skin, who sounds different from other politicians.

b. In phrases denoting change in identity, nature, or beliefs. Now rare.In quot. 1579 echoing Persius Satires 5. 116 pelliculam veterem retines, which Cooper ( Thesaurus (1565)) renders ‘thou art the olde man still: thou hast still thine olde skinne’.

ΚΠ

a1382 Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) (Bodl. 959) (1969) Jer. xiii. 23 Defoulid ben þi foot soles if chaunge mai an etheope his skyn [L. pellem suam].

a1387 J. Trevisa tr. R. Higden Polychron. (St. John's Cambr.) (1876) VI. 379 (MED) Þe Blewman chaungeþ nouȝt liȝtliche his skyn.

1534 G. Joye tr. Jeremy Prophete xiii. f. xxv^v For euen as the Morin may change his skinne & the Leoparde his spottes, so maye you once accustomed & stayned with synne do good.

?1537 in tr. Erasmus Declamatio Med. sig. A.viii Man doth floryshe and waxe a yonge man agayne by castyng a way (as it were) his olde skynne.

1579 L. Tomson tr. J. Calvin Serm. Epist. S. Paule to Timothie & Titus 133/1 We shall be alwayes in part lead away with our old skin, and there will be great remnants of the old man in vs.

1632 P. Massinger & N. Field Fatall Dowry ii. sig. E They skip into my Lords cast skins some twice a yeere.

1740 H. Walpole Ep. from Florence in R. Dodsley Coll. Poems (1763) III. 80 While The Priest some blessed nothings mutters o'er, He seems at once to shed his mortal skin, Sucks in the sacred grease at ev'ry pore: And feels Divinity transfus'd within.

1751 S. Johnson Rambler No. 133. ⁋3 I was punished with artificial excoriations in hopes of gaining new graces with a new skin.

1828 E. Bulwer-Lytton Pelham I. xxxiv. 309 That great epoch, when vanity casts off its first skin.

1856 H. Mayhew Great World London 39 The wealth in which the merchants of Rag Fair deal..is merely the offal of the well-to-do—the skins sloughed by gentility.

1902 Parl. Deb. Austral. 1901–2 8 19369/2 I was a free-trader once..but the moment I inquired into the question of how best to utilize the resources of a new country, I had to cast off the old skin of the Manchester school.

c. In phrases concerning a person's life and safety, esp. to save one's (own) skin: to protect oneself from injury, punishment, or some other unwanted fate; spec. to save one's own life.

ΘΚΠ

the world > action or operation > safety > protection or defence > preservation from injury or destruction > preserve from injury or destruction [verb (intransitive)] > preserve oneself from injury or harm

to save one's (own) skin1642

to save one's bacon1654

to save one's soul1688

a1425 (c1395) Bible (Wycliffite, L.V.) (Royal) (1850) Job ii. 4 Sathan answeride, and seide, a man schal ȝyue skyn for skyn [L. pellem pro pelle], and alle thingis that he hath for his lijf.

1569 W. Wager Longer thou Liuest sig. B.iv^v Neither mockes nor gaudes shall your skinne saue.

1642 D. Rogers Naaman Table Æquivocating with our conscience..for the saving of our owne skin, is abominable.

1692 R. L'Estrange Fables liv. 54 Dangerous Civilities.., wherein 'tis a Hard Matter for a Man to Save, both his Skin, and his Credit.

1721 J. Strype Eccl. Memorials III. xviii. 146 Some..joined in Insurrections and Mutinies; others of a more easy or timorous Spirit, complied with the Queen out of Flattery, or to save their Skins.

1786 R. Burns Poems 38 Till skelp—a shot—they're aff, a' throw'ther, To save their skin.

1890 W. Stebbing Peterborough viii. 155 A poltroon who was ever considering how to save his skin.

1898 A. Conan Doyle Trag. Korosko v He was taken prisoner..and had to turn Dervish to save his skin.

1926 H. Crane Let. 1 Nov. (1965) 276 The terrific heat and bugs, etc., nearly killed me. But I've managed to come through, at least with my skin.

1965 J. Porter Dover Two xiv. 185 Anything to save his own skin, the yellow-bellied rat!

1989 V. Glendinning Grown-ups ii. 26 Preferring to let someone be murdered rather than get involved and risk their own skins.

2002 S. Holmes B-More Careful xii. 138 He started talking... He knew he'd never see the streets again if he didn't, so he was saving his own skin.

P2. to the skin.

a. To the extent of leaving no clothing on the body; to the point of nakedness. Also figurative. Now somewhat archaic.

ΘΚΠ

the world > textiles and clothing > clothing > wearing clothing > nakedness or state of being unclothed > [adverb]

naked as a worm?a1366

nakedlyc1425

to the skin?1518

in one's (pure) naturals1579

in puris naturalibus1581

unclothedlya1626

puris naturalibus1626

with nothing on1678

uncoveredly1683

in the buff1803

Adamically1860

in the (also one's) altogether1894

in the raw1941

in the nuddy1953

c1390 W. Hilton Expos. Qui habitat & Bonum Est (1954) 56 And he is laft as naked & as pore as a mon [perh. read mon robbed] of al þe gode þat he had to þe bare skynne.

?1518 A. Barclay Fyfte Eglog sig. C.iii They clyp vs, they poll vs, they py vs to the skyn.

1581 J. Derricke Image Irelande ii. sig. Eiv^v An other sorte thei spoile, euen naked to the skin: And leaue hym nothyng for to wrappe, his naked bodie in.

1613 S. Purchas Pilgrimage 749 The Sauages..giuing all to their naked skinne..for the trifles he gaue them.

a1639 W. Whately Prototypes (1640) ii. xxxiv. 181 The Egyptians would rather sell themselves to the skinne, yea sell themselves and all, then they would..take corne by force.

a1640 P. Massinger & J. Fletcher Very Woman v. v. 35 in P. Massinger 3 New Playes (1655) We were boarded, pillag'd to the skin, and after Twice sold for slaves.

1751 T. Smollett Peregrine Pickle I. xi. 81 He was stripped to the skin with the utmost expedition by order of his affrighted parent.

1767 W. Harte Amaranth 137 Proud of the wit, and heedless of the sin, They strip, and sell the christian to the skin.

1808 J. Jamieson Etymol. Dict. Sc. Lang. at Tirr Tir one to the skin, i.e. strip him naked.

1851 W. C. Spooner Youatt's On Struct. & Dis. Horse (new ed.) xxi. 411 As well may a man with a great coat on attempt to run a race with another stripped almost to the skin.

1877 J. Cook Biology viii. 162 Capital in our great municipalities is fleeced now to the skin.

1928 D. Barnes Ryder xli. 232 I am all charity an [sic] the supplicant be truly tattered to the skin.

a1979 H. Boswell Town House, Country House (1990) ii. 20 ‘It was a good thing Mr O'Neill was here to distract him,’ she said, ‘for he was set on stripping down to the skin.’

b. Through all one's garments; (hence) thoroughly, completely. Chiefly in wet (also soaked, etc.) to the skin.

ΘΚΠ

the world > relative properties > wholeness > completeness > completely [phrase] > thoroughly > from beginning to end or through and through

to the boneOE

through and throughc1225

out and outc1300

from top to tail1303

out and inc1390

(from) head to heel (also heels)c1400

(from) head to foot (also feet)c1425

from top to (into, unto) toec1425

to the skin1526

to one's (also the) finger (also fingers') ends1530

from first to last1536

up and down1542

whole out1562

to the pith1587

to the back1594

from A to (also until) Z1612

from clew to earing1627

from top to bottom1666

back and edge1673

all hollow1762

(all) to pieces1788

from A to Za1821

to one's (also the) fingertips1825

to one's fingernails1851

from tip to toe1853

down to the ground1859

to the backbone1864

right the way1867

pur sang1893

from the ground up1895

in and out1895

from soda (card) to hock1902

1526 C. Mery Talys sig. Fi^v Well washyd & wett to the skyn.

1582 W. Allen Briefe Hist. Glorious Martyrdom sig. C1 After these iiij had bene searched vnto their skinnes, and nothing found vpon them.

1589 J. Lyly Pappe with Hatchet sig. A2^v We care not for a Scottish mist, though it wet vs to the skin.

1608 W. Shakespeare King Lear xi. 7 This tempestious storme Inuades vs to the skin .

1681 Heraclitus Ridens 15 Nov. 2/1 ‘Udds Bobblekens,’ quoth he, ‘I were wet to the skin.’

1749 J. Hervey Medit. & Contempl. (ed. 5) II. 263 The Ploughman, soaked to the skin, leaves his half-tilled Acre.

1749 L. Pilkington Mem. (new ed.) II. 201 It snowed violently, insomuch that I, who had only a Chintz gown on, was wet to the Skin.

1764 S. Foote Mayor of Garret i. 12 I don't believe..that they were ever wet to the skin in their lives.

1822 J. Galt Steam-boat 258 An even-doun thunder-plump came on, that..drookit the Doctor to the skin.

c1885 A. W. Pinero in M. R. Booth Eng. Plays of 19th Cent. (1973) IV. 338 I'm wet to the skin and frightfully hungry!

1905 Westm. Gaz. 8 July 2/2 Arriving in an Irish ‘misting’, drenched to the skin.

1931 Internat. Jrnl. Ethics 41 422 Philosopheress to the skin, she is all things to all men.

1943 M. McLaverty White Mare & Other Stories 63 Coming home he was wet to the skin, but there was great joy in his heart for he felt now there'd be rain to-morrow.

2000 K. Atkinson Emotionally Weird (2001) 23 Maybe that's true, but it doesn't stop the cold rain from soaking us to the skin or the gales blowing in our hair.

P3. In phrases denoting severe or unfair treatment, or summary punishment, as to pull the skin over a person's ears and variants, to have (also take) the skin off a person's back, etc.

ΚΠ

a1393 J. Gower Confessio Amantis (Fairf.) vii. l. 2897 (MED) Out of his skyn he was beflain Al quyk.

c1405 (c1395) G. Chaucer Canon's Yeoman's Tale (Ellesmere) (1875) G. §4. l. 1273 The deuel, out of his skyn Hym terve, I pray to god, for his falshede.

?c1430 (c1400) J. Wyclif Eng. Wks. (1880) 73 (MED) Tyrauntis..taken here skyn fro þe bak.

c1475 (c1399) Mum & Sothsegger (Cambr. Ll.4.14) (1936) ii. l. 126 Ȝe..plucked and pulled hem anon to þe skynnes.

c1475 (c1399) Mum & Sothsegger (Cambr. Ll.4.14) (1936) ii. l. 32 (MED) Þey plucked þe plomayle from þe pore skynnes.

1549 H. Latimer 2nd Serm. before Kynges Maiestie 3rd Serm. sig. Hviii She can brynge the Iudges skyne ouer hys eares.

1549 H. Latimer 2nd Serm. before Kynges Maiestie 3rd Serm. sig. Hviii^v He wyl for wyddowes sakes..plucke the Iudges skyne ouer theyr heades.

1621 T. W. tr. S. Goulart Wise Vieillard 55 Many..who in regard of their age,..being esteemed as dead men, haue made young men to tremble and quake, who earst purposed to plucke their skin ouer their eares.

1671 M. D'Assigny tr. P. Gautruche Poet. Hist. ii. v. 159 Apollo was the Victor, therefore he hang'd Marsyas upon a Tree, and pull'd his skin over his ears.

1717 C. Gildon tr. Heliodorus Adventures Theagenes & Chariclia II. viii. 105 Know otherwise, that I have ordered you to be laid in Chains, and brought hither in their Room, and that I shall pull your Skin over your Ears.

1799 W. Scott tr. J. W. von Goethe Goetz of Berlichingen i. 6 If we durst but once drub their masters so, who drag the skin over our ears!

1839 C. Dickens Nicholas Nickleby viii. 70 ‘Let any boy speak a word without leave,’ said Mr. Squeers, mildly, ‘and I'll take the skin off his back.’

1852 W. G. Simms As Good as Comedy iv. 56 Jake, my boy, I've come here to-day to strip the skin off you altogether.

1919 G. B. Shaw O'Flaherty V.C. in Heartbreak House, Great Catherine, & Playlets of War 185 My mother would have taken the skin off my back if I'd ever let on to have any other king than Parnell.

1953 E. Simon Past Masters iii. 205 A lesser man woold [sic] have had the skin off for that.

2006 T. Field Squat ix. 188 He would take the skin off your back if he could.

P4. In proverbial phrases relating to the hunting and trading of animal skins.

†a. Denoting the extent or limits of one's obligations. Obsolete.

ΚΠ

c1450 MS Douce 52 in Festschrift zum XII. Neuphilologentage (1906) 50 (MED) I kepe no more but the skyn of the catt.

1555 J. Heywood Two Hundred Epigrammes with Thyrde sig. B.vi We can haue no more of the fox but the skyn: And the foxe thynkth that, to much for vs to wyn.

1570 in Hist. MSS. Comm.: Cal. MSS Marquis of Salisbury (1883) I. 489 in Parl. Papers (C. 3777) XXXVI. 1 You can have no more of the cat but the skin.

1582 T. Watson Poems (Arb.) 96 Besides his Skinne, the Fox hath nought to pay.

1647 J. Trapp Comm. Epist. & Rev. (Rom. iv. 6) Every Fox must pay his own skin to the flaier.

1657 A. B. tr. J. Buxtorf Jewish Synagogue i. 12 Every Fox should give his own skin to the Currier to be pulled off, and to suffer his own hairs to be plucked out at his pleasure.

b. Denoting premature action or overconfident anticipation of success. Now rare.

ΚΠ

1567 in Cal. State Papers Scotl. (1900) II. 392 Theye coulde not marchaundyze for the beares skynne before they had hym.

1577 tr. ‘F. de L'Isle’ Legendarie sig. Eviij Selling the beares skinne which yet they had not taken.

1600 W. Shakespeare Henry V iv. iii. 94 The man that once did sell the Lions skin, While the beast liued, was kild with hunting him.

a1690 J. Rushworth Hist. Coll.: Third Pt. (1692) I. 436 We must not dispose of the Bears Skin till the Bear be Dead.

1835 E. Bulwer-Lytton Rienzi II. v. iii. 231 Are ye dividing the skin while the lion lives.

1858 D. Costello Millionaire of Mincing Lane xvii. 146 That reckoning which sells the skin of the bear before the beast is captured.

1899 Westm. Gaz. 30 Nov. 5/2 I do not like to divide the skin before we have caught the bear.

1984 K. M. Setton Papacy & Levant IV. xxiv. 1066/2 As far as that went, however, Rambouillet agreed with a number of other informed persons that it was a matter of dividing the skin before they had caught the bear.

P5.

a. to be skin and bone (also bones): to be very thin or emaciated. to skin and bone (also bones): to the point of emaciation or complete despair. Also as a n. (also skin-and-boner): a very thin or emaciated person or animal (rare). Also occasionally skin-and-bony adj.

ΘΚΠ

the world > life > the body > bodily shape or physique > slim shape or physique > [adjective] > thin

leanc1000

thinc1000

swonga1300

meagrea1398

empty?c1400

(as) thin (also lean, rank) as a rakec1405

macilent?a1425

rawc1425

gauntc1440

to be skin and bone (also bones)c1450

leany?a1475

swampc1480

scarrya1500

pinched1514

extenuate1528

lean-fleshed1535

carrion-lean1542

spare1548

lank1553

carrion1565

brawn-fallen1578

raw-bone1590

scraggeda1591

thin-bellied1591

rake-lean1593

bare-boned1594

forlorn1594

Lented1594

lean-looked1597

shotten herring1598

spiny1598

starved1598

thin-belly1598

raw-boned1600

larbar1603

meagry?1603

fleshless1605

scraggy1611

ballow1612

lank-leana1616

skinnya1616

hagged1616

scraggling1616

carrion-like1620

extenuated1620

thin-gutted1620

haggard1630

scrannel1638

leanisha1645

skeletontal1651

overlean1657

emaciated1665

slank1668

lathy1672

emaciate1676

nithered1691

emacerated1704

lean-looking1713

scranky1735

squinny-gut(s)1742

mauger1756

squinny1784

angular1789

etiolated1791

as thin (also lean) as a rail1795

wiry1808

slink1817

scranny1820

famine-hollowed1822

sharp featured1824

reedy1830

scrawny1833

stringy1833

lean-ribbeda1845

skeletony1852

famine-pinched1856

shelly1866

flesh-fallen1876

thinnish1884

all horn and hide1890

unfurnished1893

bone-thin1899

underweight1899

asthenic1925

skin-and-bony1935

skinny-malinky1940

skeletal1952

pencil-neck1960

c1450 in F. J. Furnivall Hymns to Virgin & Christ (1867) 73 (MED) Ful of fleissche Y was to fele, Now..Me is lefte But skyn & boon.

a1456 J. Lydgate Bycorne & Chychevache (Trin. Cambr. R.3.20) 84 in Minor Poems (1934) ii. 436 I am but skyn and boon.

1548 Hall's Vnion: Edward V f. xvi^v In..whose reigne she dyed, when she had nothyng but a reueled skynne and bone.

1555 J. Heywood Two Hundred Epigrammes with Thyrde sig. A.vi^v Yet art thou skyn and bone.

1617 F. Moryson Itinerary i. 251 My self being nothing but skin and bone, as one that languished in a Consumption.

a1648 Ld. Herbert Life (1976) 10 She Languished and pinde away to skinne and bone.

1748 S. Richardson Clarissa VII. liii. 201 Her features are so regular..that were she only skin and bone, she must be a beauty.

1792 W. Borrow in M. F. G.-B. Giner & M. Montgomery Knaresborough Workhouse Daybk. (2003) 187 She nothing but skin and bone and a boundance of Lumber.

1823 Blackwood's Mag. July 66 Steeds of various degrees, high-mettled racer, or hunter, Bit of blood, skin-and-boner, pad, hack, mule, jackass, or donkey.

1827 tr. Narr. Captivity de Brisson in tr. Perils & Captivity 224 We arrived, extenuated and reduced to skin and bone.

1870 C. Dickens Edwin Drood xxii. 176 The breast, which is the only delicate cuts in a duck, always goes in a direction which I cannot imagine where, and your own plate comes down so miserably skin-and-bony!

1888 ‘W. Châteauclair’ Young Seigneur 73 ‘Heh, heh, heh!’ cried an old skin-and-bones.

1906 Daily Chron. 26 Nov. 4/7 What's wearing me to skin and bone? My neighbour's grinding gramophone.

1935 C. Day Lewis Time to Dance & Other Poems 61 You silly great fulminating bogeyman! You're nothing but a laugh and a daft skin-and-bony man.

1955 G. Greene Loser takes All i. vii. 43 The horse was all skin and bone and I had forgotten that the road was uphill.

1988 S. Deshpande That Long Silence ii. 68 Look at your arms—just skin and bone.

1998 Courier-Jrnl. (Louisville, Kentucky) 15 June a4/2 Their faces and limbs shrink to skin and bones.

2006 Racing Post (Nexis) 2 June 20 He was in a dreadful state. He was pretty much skin and bones.

b. skin and grief: emaciated; weak and starving. Frequently attributive. Also as n.: an emaciated or starving person (rare).

ΚΠ

1779 J. Warner in J. H. Jesse G. Selwyn & his Contemp. (1844) IV. 30 Such a number of pinch-bellied, woebegone, skin-and-grief, lanthorn-jawed, soup-maigre subjects.

?1837 E. Stirling Pickwick Club iii. vi. 50 What's your name, young skin and grief?

1856 E. L. C. Follen Old Garret II. 79 Perhaps it is your fault that poor Scrimp is nothing but skin and grief.

1887 T. Hardy Woodlanders I. xii. 226 He was almost well, but is much worse again; a man all skin and grief he ever were.

a1903 H. Latham in Eng. Dial. Dict. (1903) IV. 121/1 [Yorkshire] Ay, poor little minnit, he's all skin an' grief.

1912 D. H. Lawrence Let. 24 Dec. (1962) I. 172 They want me to have form: that means, they want me to have their pernicious ossiferous skin-and-grief form, and I won't.

1912 P. C. Wren Dew & Mildew xxv. 420 We had a chap at school called ‘Skin-and-Grief’.

1983 R. Brown Voy. of Iceberg 110 Their weight is down to fifty pounds and a pup that's all skin and grief is no use to anyone.

P6. in (also with) a whole skin: unwounded, uninjured. Frequently in †to sleep in a whole skin, to keep a whole skin: to escape unscathed, to remain uninjured. Now somewhat archaic.

ΘΚΠ

the world > health and disease > be in state of health [verb (intransitive)] > remain uninjured

to sleep in a whole skin1534

the world > health and disease > [adjective] > of health: good > free from injury

unwoundedOE

wholeOE

unwemmedc1175

hailc1275

wemlessc1330

sound as a trouta1450

unmaimeda1470

unmaggled1508

unmenyied?a1513

in (also with) a whole skin1534

woundless1579

unmartyred1580

wound-free1609

invulnered1613

fist-free1615

invulneratea1680

unmangled1885

1534 N. Udall Floures for Latine Spekynge gathered oute of Terence f. 170 I am a conquerour yf I may depart or escape with a hole skynne [L. latere tecto abscedere].

1543 T. Becon Invect. against Swearing Pref. f. iii^v It is good sleapyng in an whole skynne.

1596 T. Nashe Haue with you to Saffron-Walden sig. M3^v The foole is crafty inough to sleepe in a whole skin.

1600 P. Holland tr. Livy Rom. Hist. xxxii. xxi. 823 b To enter into no armes at all, to sit still and sleepe in a hole skin.

c1643 N. Boteler Dialogues (1929) (modernized text) 38 They propound it to themselves as the safer course to receive their pay in a whole skin.

1644 S. Rutherford Serm. House of Commons 47 Some sell Religion to be free from plundering, others to keep a whole skin, and to go to heaven, as they imagine without losse of bloud.

1694 L. Echard tr. Plautus Epidicus iv. viii, in tr. Plautus Comedies 110 Begon in a moment, as you hope to sleep in a whole skin.

1704 J. Pitts True Acct. Mohammetans ii. 12 The Algerines are a very timerous sort of People, willing to sleep in a whole Skin.

1748 S. Richardson Clarissa V. xxi. 193 Honest Hickman may now sleep in a whole skin.

1813 R. Southey March to Moscow x, in Poet. Wks. (1838) VI. 221 He was besides in a very great fright, For a whole skin he liked to be in.

1878 C. H. Spurgeon Metrop. Tabernacle Pulpit XXIII. 563 Others think the Gospel is true: Erasmus feels sure that it is, but Erasmus wants to die in a whole skin.

1897 W. E. Norris Marietta's Marriage xliii We'll assume..that your anxiety to keep a whole skin justified you in taking to your heels.

1904 E. Glasgow Deliverance v. vi. 499 If that young rascal wants to keep a whole skin he'd better stay off this place.

1932 R. Macaulay They were Defeated i. xii. 92 He gets through with it with a whole skin.

2005 L. A. Lawson Gorgon's Mask 11 The child Thomas feared that he would not get out of his predicament with a whole skin.

P7. by (also with) the skin of one's teeth: by a very narrow margin, barely, only just. Also occasionally with ellipsis of the preposition. [After biblical Hebrew bĕʿōr šinnāi (Job 19:20), lit. ‘with the skin of my teeth’, thus in quot. 1560 a literalism of translation, which its use in the King James Bible helped to make proverbial in English. However, the sense of the passage in Job is uncertain and disputed, as is the grammatical analysis and meaning of the Hebrew verb form immediately preceding the noun phrase; many recent commentators doubt that the Hebrew text offers any support for the notion of a ‘narrow escape’. The Vulgate and Septuagint render the passage differently (Vulgate: et derelicta sunt tantummodo labia circa dentes meos ‘only my lips are left around my teeth’; Septuagint: τὰ δὲ ὁστᾶ μου ἑν ὁδοῦσιν ἔχεται ‘my bones are held in my teeth’), the Septuagint apparently following an emendation of the Hebrew text. Compare the Wycliffite Bible, following the text of the Vulgate:

▸ a1382 Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) (Bodl. 959) Job xix. 20 Oneli þe lippis ben laft aboute my teeþ.

]

ΘΚΠ

the world > action or operation > difficulty > [phrase] > with difficulty

of (also by, with) hardc1330

with needa1500

by (also with) the skin of one's teeth1560

1560 Bible (Geneva) Job xix. 20 I haue escaped with the skinne of my tethe.

1647 Earl of Clarendon Contempl. Psalms in Tracts (1727) 510 He reckoned himself only escaped with the skin of his teeth, that he had nothing left.

1774 E. Allen Brief Narr. Proc. Govt. New-York 72 They left their Possessions and Farms to the Conquerers, and escaped with the Skin of their Teeth.

1816 J. Marsden Narr. Mission Nova Scotia Pref. 8 Having escaped by the skin of my teeth, I may be allowed to look back upon the dangers I have passed and with the voice of salutary warning point them out to others.

1825 J. Neal Brother Jonathan I. 109 Skin o' my teeth, I guess, if it hadn't been for Watty boy.

1893 Nation 9 Feb. 99/2 His eldest son was implicated in the robbery.., and came off by the skin of his teeth.

1941 J. R. R. Tolkien Let. 6–8 Mar. (1995) 52 I ought to have got a good scholarship, I only landed by the skin of my teeth an exhibition of £60 at Exeter.

1955 Times 16 May 12/2 On each occasion France escaped with the skin of their teeth.

2002 C. Slaughter Before Knife (2003) viii. 133 I made it here only by the skin of my teeth, I'm telling you.

P8.

a. to jump (also leap) out of one's skin.

(a) To feel extreme delight or excitement; to be full of joy or high spirits. Also occasionally to be out of one's skin. Now rare.

ΘΚΠ

the mind > emotion > excitement > be or become excited [verb (intransitive)] > leap or skip with excitement

dancec1400

to jump (also leap) out of one's skin1567

1567 W. Painter Palace of Pleasure II. xxi. f. 154 Master Philippo, was so well pleased, as he was like to leape out of his skin for ioy.

1584 B. R. tr. Herodotus Famous Hyst. i. f. 38 Hymselfe as one ready to leape out of hys skynne for joy,..declared [etc.].

c1616 R. C. Times' Whistle (1871) vii. 2976 The marchant, if his gaines doe safe come in, Is with ioy ready to leape out on's skinne.

1668 H. More Divine Dialogues (1713) iii. xxxvi. 283 How transported are my Spirits, that I am ready even to skip out of my skin for Joy!

1706 S. Centlivre Love at Venture v. 59 I, I, I am so over-joy'd, I shall jump out of my skin.

1733 H. Fielding Miser (London ed.) v. i. 69 I am ready to leap out of my Skin for Joy.

1808 G. Colman Blue Devils i. i. 22 'Twould make me jump out of my skin, for joy.

1857 Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. June 656/1 Any other child in the village would have leapt out of her skin to have her face upon my sketch-book.

1860 A. Trollope Castle Richmond III. xiii. 246 So is we all ould frinds, an we're all glad—out of our skins wid gladness.

1922 J. Joyce Ulysses iii. 710 An admirer he signed it I near jumped out of my skin.

(b) To start violently with surprise or alarm. Frequently with almost, nearly, etc.

ΘΚΠ

the mind > mental capacity > expectation > surprise, unexpectedness > happen or move unexpectedly [verb (intransitive)] > act with surprise

abash?c1400

startc1405

startle1576

to raise one's eyebrow(s) (or an eyebrow)1849

to jump (also leap) out of one's skin1860

gloppen-

1860 ‘M. Harland’ Nemesis xxx. 431 There came sech a knock at the door that I a'most jumped out of my skin.

1915 Condor 17 7 It was so unexpected and so discordant that I nearly jumped out of my skin (figuratively speaking), entertaining the feelings of a pedestrian who hears a shrieking auto siren at his back.

1942 T. Kitching Diary 25 Jan. in Life & Death in Changi (1998) iii. 23 Says he, ‘1875? Yes, I was living in this house then.’ I nearly jumped out of my skin. ‘What! In 1875?’

1981 ‘J. Gash’ Lovejoy: Vatican Rip (1986) viii. 71 A pebble dislodging somewhere practically made me leap out of my skin.

2001 C. Glazebrook Madolescents 74 I nearly jump out of my skin when the phone rings.

b. out of one's skin: to the point of exhaustion; (in later use usually more generally) to an excessive or exceptional degree; exceptionally.

ΘΚΠ

the world > action or operation > manner of action > effort or exertion > [phrase] > with excessive exertion

out of one's skin1578

1578 A. Golding tr. Seneca Conc. Benefyting iii. xix. f. 36^v He lackyeth after him when he iourneyeth, he tendeth him in his sicknesse, he tooyleth himself out of his skin [L. labore summo colit] too doo him ease.

1592 T. Nashe Pierce Penilesse (Brit. Libr. copy) sig. D3 The Souldiour may fight himselfe out of his skinne.

1605 S. Rowlands Hell's broke Loose sig. C When Phisicke comes in Gold, and Siluer's kinde, To thinke on this, what's hee, that would not craue it, And fight himselfe out of his skin to haue it?

1621 T. Taylor Parable of Sower & Seed 178 Yet are they not content, but repine and vexe themselues,..yea, and toyle themselues out of their skinnes.

1693 S. R. tr. A. Baillet Life M. Des Cartes vi. 195 M. Sorbiere..sought out other Subjects to plague and quite weary Monsieur Des Cartes out of his Skin.

1866 A. Trollope Belton Estate I. vii. 162 Why should he be made..to drive the poor beast out of its skin?

1891 N. Gould Double Event xv. 101 The horse..looked in splendid condition, ‘fit to jump out of his skin’, to use a racing term.

1978 Daily Mirror 18 Oct. 32/1 Barnes played out of his skin against Blackpool recently.

1989 Taxi Globe 15 Nov. 3/5 We were all worried out of our skins.

2006 FIFA Mag. Oct. 28/1 Hislop played out of his skin to keep his team in the game against a superior side.

c. to fly out of one's skin: to lose one's composure or self-control, esp. because of anger, fear, or frustration; spec. = Phrases 8a(b).

ΚΠ

1591 (?a1425) Three Kings (Huntington) in R. M. Lumiansky & D. Mill Chester Myst. Cycle (1974) I. 162 (MED) He would goe wood..and flye out of his skynne.

1722 S. Croxall tr. Æsop Fables lxix. 122 You, who are so stout and formidable at all other times, if you do but hear the cry of the Hounds, are ready to fly out of your Skin for fear.

1840 Knickerbocker Mar. 227 Do go and leave me, or I shall fly out of my skin.

1851 S. G. Goodrich Robert Merry's Museum 16 When the king beheld the false princess, he almost flew out of his skin with disappointment and anger.

1912 Amer. Mag. Apr. 759/2 At the end of a week, he'll be simply gasping for some golf, or tennis, or croquet even. Oh, he'll be ready to fly out of his skin.

1997 K. Eagle Night Remembers (1998) 259 All it took to send her flying out of her skin was a knock on the door.

†P9. as the skin between one's brows and variants: (used adverbially as an intensifier of an adjective) completely, utterly, absolutely. Obsolete.Chiefly in as honest as the skin between one's brows, in later use usually with allusion to Shakespeare (see quot. 1600¹).

ΘΚΠ

the world > relative properties > quantity > greatness of quantity, amount, or degree > high or intense degree > greatly or very much [phrase] > extremely > specific emphasizing a quality

as the skin between one's brows1575

as clean, clear, dry as a whistle1786

1575 W. Stevenson Gammer Gurtons Nedle v. ii. sig. Ei^v I am as true, I wold thou knew, as skin bet wene thy browes.

1600 W. Shakespeare Much Ado about Nothing iii. v. 12 An old man sir, and his wittes are not so blunt, as God helpe I would desire they were, but infaith honest, as the skin between his browes .

1600 B. Jonson Every Man out of his Humor ii. i. sig. Eiv Punt. Is he magnanimous? Gent. As the skin betweene your browes sir.

1631 B. Jonson Bartholmew Fayre iv. v. 64 in Wks. II Tou [sic] shalt be as honesht as the skinne betweene his hornsh.

a1643 W. Cartwright Ordinary (1651) v. iv. 83 I am as honest as the skin that is Between thy Brows?

1737 J. Miller Universal Passion iv. ii. 51 He's an old Man, Sir, and his Wits are not quite so ready as 'twere to be wish'd; but in troth he's as honest as the Skin between his Brows.

1783 G. Colman tr. Horace Art Poetry 32 As honest as the skin between his brows!

1861 D. Costello Holidays with Hobgoblins 95 He was good-natured to a fault, and honest as the skin between his brows.

P10. skin and birn: see burn n.³ 2b.

P11. colloquial. in a bad skin: in a bad mood or temper. Also in a good skin: in a good mood. Now chiefly English regional and historical.

ΚΠ

1788 F. Grose Classical Dict. Vulgar Tongue (ed. 2) at Skin In a bad skin, out of temper, in an ill humour.

a1825 R. Forby Vocab. E. Anglia (1830) 137 Good-mind, Good-skin... They both express good humour. Ex...‘he is in a bad skin to-day’.

1863 C. G. Rowe Fisherman's Niece iii. 33 ‘You don't seem in a good skin, brother, tonight,’ said Jenny's aunt.

1911 B. Swift Old Dance Master xvi. 258 If it ain't stilton, if it ain't fit to put a feller in a good skin, and if I don't love 'er as 'ard as a 'ammer, I'll be shot!

1929 F. Manning Middle Parts of Fortune I. vii. 152 I have been in a bad skin ever since we left Sand-pits.

1957 H. Hall Parish's Dict. Sussex Dial. (new ed.) 121/2 He's in a bad skin s'morning, 'e's got out o' bed the wrong side.

2003 M. Jennings Let Loose Dogs xxxii. 208 I was still in a bad skin. What I said didn't mean anything.

P12.

a. to get under the skin of: to reach or display a deep understanding of. Cf. to get into someone's skin at Phrases 1a.

ΘΚΠ

the mind > mental capacity > understanding > intelligence, cleverness > sharpness, shrewdness, insight > achieve understanding [phrase]

to see, etc. through (also into) a (brick, mud, stone) wall1598

to read someone like an open book1827

there are no flies on1848

to get under the skin of1862

to get or have (someone or something) taped1914

1862 Bentley's Misc. 52 22 I have been invited to all sorts of houses, I have seen all sorts of people, I have tried to get under the skin of all classes of intelligences.

1927 H. Crane Let. 12 Sept. (1965) 307 I think I really succeed in getting under the skin of this glorious and dying animal [sc. the Indian].

1942 A. Christie Five Little Pigs i. iv. 32 I think you are interested in—character, shall we say?.. To get under the skin, as it were, of your criminal.

1959 M. Summerton Small Wilderness i. 11 He got under the skin of the rôle and lived it... He was given a small part in the spring production.

1999 Empire Nov. 34/5 A psychiatrist gets under the skin of a long lost primatologist who has ‘gone native’.

2004 HMV Choice Mar. 30/2 Amazing Grace, Ave Maria and Santa Lucia serve to demonstrate his ability to get under the skin of a sacred tune and raise the hairs on the back of your neck.

b. to get under a person's skin: to annoy or irritate someone intensely; (also) to fill someone's mind in a compelling or persistent way.

ΘΚΠ

the mind > emotion > anger > irritation > irritate [verb (transitive)]

gremec893

grillc897

teenOE

mispay?c1225

agrillec1275

oftenec1275

tarya1300

tarc1300

atenec1320

enchafec1374

to-tarc1384

stingc1386

chafe?a1400

pokec1400

irec1420

ertc1440

rehete1447

nettlec1450

bog1546

tickle1548

touch1581

urge1593

aggravate1598

irritate1598

dishumour1600

to wind up1602

to pick at ——1603

outhumour1607

vex1625

bloody1633

efferate1653

rankle1659

spleen1689

splenetize1700

rile1724

roil1742

to put out1796

to touch (also get, catch, etc.) (a person) on the raw1823

roughen1837

acerbate1845

to stroke against the hair, the wrong way (of the hair)1846

nag1849

to rub (a person, etc.) up the wrong way1859

frump1862

rattle1865

to set up any one's bristles1873

urticate1873

needle1874

draw1876

to rough up1877

to stick pins into1879

to get on ——1880

to make (someone) tiredc1883

razoo1890

to get under a person's skin1896

to get a person's goat1905

to be on at1907

to get a person's nanny1909

cag1919

to get a person's nanny-goat1928

cagmag1932

peeve1934

tick-off1934

to get on a person's tits1945

to piss off1946

bug1947

to get up a person's nose1951

tee1955

bum1970

tick1975

1896 G. Ade Artie vi. 54 Say, Miller, if I was to beat his whole face off I could n't ketch even. He got way under the skin on me.

1927 H. T. Lowe-Porter tr. T. Mann Magic Mountain (London ed.) I. v. 300 What's the matter? Has anything got under your skin?

1933 F. Baldwin Innocent Bystander (1935) vii. 132 That pleased her, she had got under his skin, he had at least admitted something.

1938 E. Bowen Death of Heart i. viii. 143 ‘That is why she annoys me so.’ ‘You once said she'd been very kind.’ ‘Indeed she has—that's her way of getting under my skin.’

1948 L. A. G. Strong Trevannion xvi. 297 ‘Aren't you perhaps afraid the inadequacy may be on your side?’.. ‘Damn you, Walter. You do get under a man's skin.’

1972 D. Delman Sudden Death iii. 58 Do I bug you, Mr Mathews? Do I get under your skin?

1977 C. McCullough Thorn Birds xvii. 455 I can keep you, because I'll never let you get under my skin.

1993 Q Jan. 61/1 The songs are quite structured and the melodies are not big melodies but they get under the skin.

2000 J. Harris Blackberry Wine (2001) xxxii. 166 He argued constantly with his mother..—everything got under his skin that year.

P13. under the skin (also skins): in reality; according to the true rather the apparent nature of something. Originally in sisters under the skin.The phrase sisters under the skin derives from Kipling (see quot. 1896); Kipling's passage was widely quoted in the form ‘sisters under the skin’ in the early 20th cent.

ΘΚΠ

the mind > mental capacity > knowledge > conformity with what is known, truth > [adverb] > in reality

in substancea1393

indeed1412

in realitya1513

in nature1605

solidly1625

under the skin (also skins)1896

1896 R. Kipling Seven Seas 193 For the Colonel's lady an' Judy O'Grady Are sisters under their skins!

1903 C. M. Gayley Representative Eng. Comedies I. 430 If he appears more ready than Alexander was to yield his victim, it is only because a keeper's daughter and a princess are ‘sisters under the skin’.

1925 Amer. Mercury Oct. 215/1 That diplomacy and force have always been brothers under the skins is a truism that most writers upon the former will not admit.

1946 A. Christie Hollow iii. 31 They were the same, sisters under the skin, Mrs. Pearstock from Tottenham and Mrs. Forrester of Park Lane.

1949 A. Wilson Wrong Set 57 Like called to like. The Colonel's lady and Lily O'Grady were both ‘lumpen’ under the skin.

1975 D. Francis High Stakes xi. 160 Merchant bankers are pirates under the skin.

1990 N.Y. Woman Oct. 74/1 My gayness doesn't assure me closeness to women—we're not, ipso facto, sisters under the skin.

1996 I. Q. Hunter in P. J. Davies Representing & Imagining Amer. xi. 118 Wired for killing, all men are psychopaths under the skin.

P14.

(a) colloquial. no skin off a person's nose: used to indicate that one is not offended or adversely affected by something.

ΘΚΠ

the mind > emotion > indifference > [phrase] > a matter of indifference to one

all the same1803

no skin off a person's nose1911

1911 M. Glass Abe & Mawruss iv. 130 ‘Of course, Max,’ Abe added,..‘it ain't no skin off my nose.’

1926 S. Lewis Mantrap viii. 95 If you think..that it's any skin off my nose to lose the pleasures of your company..you got another think coming.

1960 D. Lytton Goddam White Man v. 113 But it was no skin off my nose that she was dead.

2005 N. Hornby Long Way Down 30 I'll go down there tonight if you want. Before I kill myself. I don't mind. No skin off my nose.

(b) no skin off a person's ass (also back, bugle, ear): = no skin off a person's nose at Phrases 14a(a). Also no skin off (a person).

ΚΠ

1920 S. Lewis Main St. xxv. 312 Go to it. No skin off my ear, Nat. Think I want to be fifth wheel in the coach?

1930 Amer. Mercury Dec. 420/1 It ain't no skin off of Hymie's bugle.

1934 J. O'Hara Appointment in Samarra vi. 158 Okay. No skin off my ass.

1938 D. Baker Young Man with Horn i. iv. 41 It was no skin off Jeff what colour his old lady painted the piano.

1971 B. Malamud Tenants 35 Make it like eight [o'clock] or around that if it's no skin off you. If I miss a day don't fret on it.

1972 R. Milner in W. King Black Short Story Anthol. 378 Then Clyde said it was no skin off his ass.

1982 New Yorker 2 Jan. 25/1 I expected that much of him. It wouldn't have been any skin off his back.

b. here's to the skin off your nose and variants: used as a toast. Now rare.

ΘΚΠ

the world > food and drink > drink > drinking > drinking salutations [interjection] > in drinking healths

have towardsc1400

here's to1597

skol1600

tope1651

hob or nob1756

slainte1824

here's hoping, how, looking (at you), luck1888

santé1903

prosit1916

here's to the skin off your nose1925

(here's) mud in your eye1927

lechayim1932

1925 E. Fraser & J. Gibbons Soldier & Sailor Words 260 Here's to the skin off your nose: Your good health!

1936 P. G. Wodehouse Young Men in Spats ii. 42 ‘Well, skin off your nose,’ said Pongo. ‘Fluff in your latchkey,’ said Barmy.

1959 D. Eden Sleeping Bride ix. 85 Philip handed her a drink and she added, ‘Here's the skin off your nose.’

P15. in one's skin: unclothed, naked. Also in skins: without shirts (cf. sense 22).

ΚΠ

1922 J. Joyce Ulysses iii. xviii. [Penelope] 714 I in my skin hopping around.

1956 H. Gold Man who was not with It xvi. 142 I asked her to bring her swimming clothes..because we were not to swim in our skins today.

1976 Western Mail (Cardiff) 27 Nov. The great day dawned, Wales v Africa, Wales in skins and Jack Sharkey's and S. Africa in white (skins meant no jerseys).

1991 S. S. Tepper Beauty xxii. 248 The little fool was going to let her clothes vanish and stand there in her skin, begging him to take her.

1998 Independent (Nexis) 10 July 31 Shirt-pulling and holding have become such standard defensive procedure players seem shocked when they are penalised... If it were not for the loss of income from the sales of replica shirts, teams might even consider playing in ‘skins’.

P16.

skin and blister n. [rhyming slang] British slang one's sister.

ΘΚΠ

society > society and the community > kinship or relationship > kinsman or relation > sibling > sister > [noun]

sistereOE

sis1596

tittiea1628

sissy1757

skin and blister1925

1925 E. Fraser & J. Gibbons Soldier & Sailor Words 260 Skin and blister, sister. (Rhyming slang.)

1935 ‘G. Ingram’ Cockney Cavalcade x. 170 I saw your skin and blister last night.

1959 W. Hall Long & Short & Tall ii. 89 I've got a little skin and blister back in Blighty. Twelve years old.

1987 P. Booth Sisters v. 46 Hey, that's my skin and blister, Pete—as we say in London.

P17. slang (originally and chiefly in African-American usage). to give someone some skin and variants: to shake or slap hands together as a gesture of friendship or solidarity. Frequently in imperative use, as gimme some skin (also elliptically as skin). Also occasionally as a noun phrase denoting the action.

ΘΚΠ

the mind > emotion > love > friendliness > on friendly terms [phrase] > asking for gesture of friendship or solidarity

gimme some skin1940

the mind > emotion > love > friendliness > [noun] > symbol of friendship > skin of palm as making contact in friendship

skin1940

the mind > emotion > love > friendliness > be friendly [verb (intransitive)] > join hands in token of amity > slap or shake hands in gesture of friendship

to give someone some skin1967

1940 N.Y. Amsterdam News 6 July 20/1 ‘Well, Jack, lay it on me! Gimme some skin.’ (Shakes hands with pal.)

1942 Z. N. Hurston in Amer. Mercury July 86 ‘Gimme some skin!’ ‘Lay de skin on me, pal!’ Sweet Back grabbed Jelly's outstretched hand and shook hard.

1944 D. Burley Orig. Handbk. Harlem Jive 85 The act of ‘Gimme-some-skin’ involves some theatricals, an intricate sense of timing, plenty of gestures.

1967 Harper's Mag. Nov. 62/2 Once—when I came in on the break behind him at precisely the right point—Pops gave me some skin. He reached out his dark old hand..and I turned my hand, palm up... Pops lightly brushed my open palm in a half-slap, the jive set's seal of approval.

1968 N. Cruz & J. Buckingham Run Baby Run iv. 38 Then he grinned and stuck out his hand. ‘Slip me some skin, Nicky. Me, I'm Carlos. President of the Mau Maus.’

1974 H. L. Foster Ribbin', Jivin', & Playin' Dozens iv. 119 The viewer of TV sporting events will often observe black athletes, and whites too now, giving skin after a home run, a touchdown, or at the start of a basketball game.

2000 P. Beatty Tuff vii. 93 ‘Hey, it's hard dating a sister. Give me some skin on that one’, said Spencer, thrusting his palm toward Winston.

2003 V. O. Carter Such Sweet Thunder 318 ‘If you got the dime, I sure got the time!’ ‘Skin man!’ ‘I'm comin', mistah—can't you see how hard I'm breathin'?’

P18. colloquial (originally North American Business). to have (one's) skin in the game and variants: to have a stake in the success of something, esp. to have a financial or personal investment in a business; to be closely involved in something.It is not clear whether the metaphor underlying this phrase is to do with putting oneself at risk (cf. the metonymic uses of skin at Phrases 1c), or with risking one's money (cf. sense 6); both have been suggested.

ΚΠ

1976 Infosystems Mar. 8/1 I suggest that the various groups of participants should consider that they do not have any skin in the game.

1986 Wall St. Jrnl. 7 Apr. 27/5 Others..don't have their skin in the game the way the marketing rep does.

1995 CIO 1 Feb. 30/3 I'm trying to negotiate an agreement to get the supplier's skin in the game.

1996 Observer 11 Aug. (Business section) 4/2 We want to make a step change in our clients' business—and we're willing to risk our own capital to do it... We're transforming the business by having skin in the game.

2005 N.Y. Times (National ed.) 23 Jan. ii. 29/4 We'll pay for the commission, but we want the orchestra to have some skin in the game.

单词	to the skin
释义	> as lemmas to the skin Phrases P1. In metonymic uses denoting a person's life, identity, etc. a. In miscellaneous uses concerning a person's identity, character, or behaviour, esp. to be in (also get into) someone's skin. Cf. to get under a person's skin at Phrases 12b. ΚΠ 1372 in C. Brown Relig. Lyrics 14th Cent. (1924) 88 I wolde ben clad in cristis skyn, Þat ran so longe on blode. 1573 C. Hollyband French Schoole-maister in M. St. C. Byrne Elizabethan Home (1949) 23 I would not be in thy skinne for twentie crownes of golde. ?1608 S. Lennard tr. P. Charron Of Wisdome ii. ii. 252 We must discerne the skinne from the shirt. 1665 R. South Serm. preached before Court 38 If Mens Religion lies no deeper then their skin. 1738 J. Swift Compl. Coll. Genteel Conversat. 46 Why, where should she be? You must needs know; she's in her Skin. 1790 F. Burney Diary Feb. (1842) V. 93 I shall pity those men when the book comes out!—I would not be in their skins! 1828 W. Carr Dial. Craven (ed. 2) (at cited word) ‘To be in another's skin,’ to be in his place or situation. a1850 D. G. Rossetti Dante & Circle (1874) i. 221 Him who sticks so in his skin. a1850 D. G. Rossetti Dante & Circle (1874) i. 224 Messer Angiolieri's slipped his skin. 1886 G. B. Shaw How to become Musical Critic (1960) 115 The one [sc. actor] gets into the skin of one character: the other only puts on the clothes of twelve. 1916 J. R. Towse Sixty Years of Theater xxiii. 361 In the church scene, Miss Rehan won her audience by a fine display of honest womanly indignation, but she never really ‘got into the skin’ of Beatrice. 1963 Listener 28 Mar. 564/2 Those who enjoy the fun of getting inside someone else's skin. 2003 Time 19 May 31/2 The Democrats..will need a candidate who is easy in his skin, who sounds different from other politicians. b. In phrases denoting change in identity, nature, or beliefs. Now rare.In quot. 1579 echoing Persius Satires 5. 116 pelliculam veterem retines, which Cooper ( Thesaurus (1565)) renders ‘thou art the olde man still: thou hast still thine olde skinne’. ΚΠ a1382 Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) (Bodl. 959) (1969) Jer. xiii. 23 Defoulid ben þi foot soles if chaunge mai an etheope his skyn [L. pellem suam]. a1387 J. Trevisa tr. R. Higden Polychron. (St. John's Cambr.) (1876) VI. 379 (MED) Þe Blewman chaungeþ nouȝt liȝtliche his skyn. 1534 G. Joye tr. Jeremy Prophete xiii. f. xxv^v For euen as the Morin may change his skinne & the Leoparde his spottes, so maye you once accustomed & stayned with synne do good. ?1537 in tr. Erasmus Declamatio Med. sig. A.viii Man doth floryshe and waxe a yonge man agayne by castyng a way (as it were) his olde skynne. 1579 L. Tomson tr. J. Calvin Serm. Epist. S. Paule to Timothie & Titus 133/1 We shall be alwayes in part lead away with our old skin, and there will be great remnants of the old man in vs. 1632 P. Massinger & N. Field Fatall Dowry ii. sig. E They skip into my Lords cast skins some twice a yeere. 1740 H. Walpole Ep. from Florence in R. Dodsley Coll. Poems (1763) III. 80 While The Priest some blessed nothings mutters o'er, He seems at once to shed his mortal skin, Sucks in the sacred grease at ev'ry pore: And feels Divinity transfus'd within. 1751 S. Johnson Rambler No. 133. ⁋3 I was punished with artificial excoriations in hopes of gaining new graces with a new skin. 1828 E. Bulwer-Lytton Pelham I. xxxiv. 309 That great epoch, when vanity casts off its first skin. 1856 H. Mayhew Great World London 39 The wealth in which the merchants of Rag Fair deal..is merely the offal of the well-to-do—the skins sloughed by gentility. 1902 Parl. Deb. Austral. 1901–2 8 19369/2 I was a free-trader once..but the moment I inquired into the question of how best to utilize the resources of a new country, I had to cast off the old skin of the Manchester school. c. In phrases concerning a person's life and safety, esp. to save one's (own) skin: to protect oneself from injury, punishment, or some other unwanted fate; spec. to save one's own life. ΘΚΠ the world > action or operation > safety > protection or defence > preservation from injury or destruction > preserve from injury or destruction [verb (intransitive)] > preserve oneself from injury or harm to save one's (own) skin1642 to save one's bacon1654 to save one's soul1688 a1425 (c1395) Bible (Wycliffite, L.V.) (Royal) (1850) Job ii. 4 Sathan answeride, and seide, a man schal ȝyue skyn for skyn [L. pellem pro pelle], and alle thingis that he hath for his lijf. 1569 W. Wager Longer thou Liuest sig. B.iv^v Neither mockes nor gaudes shall your skinne saue. 1642 D. Rogers Naaman Table Æquivocating with our conscience..for the saving of our owne skin, is abominable. 1692 R. L'Estrange Fables liv. 54 Dangerous Civilities.., wherein 'tis a Hard Matter for a Man to Save, both his Skin, and his Credit. 1721 J. Strype Eccl. Memorials III. xviii. 146 Some..joined in Insurrections and Mutinies; others of a more easy or timorous Spirit, complied with the Queen out of Flattery, or to save their Skins. 1786 R. Burns Poems 38 Till skelp—a shot—they're aff, a' throw'ther, To save their skin. 1890 W. Stebbing Peterborough viii. 155 A poltroon who was ever considering how to save his skin. 1898 A. Conan Doyle Trag. Korosko v He was taken prisoner..and had to turn Dervish to save his skin. 1926 H. Crane Let. 1 Nov. (1965) 276 The terrific heat and bugs, etc., nearly killed me. But I've managed to come through, at least with my skin. 1965 J. Porter Dover Two xiv. 185 Anything to save his own skin, the yellow-bellied rat! 1989 V. Glendinning Grown-ups ii. 26 Preferring to let someone be murdered rather than get involved and risk their own skins. 2002 S. Holmes B-More Careful xii. 138 He started talking... He knew he'd never see the streets again if he didn't, so he was saving his own skin. P2. to the skin. a. To the extent of leaving no clothing on the body; to the point of nakedness. Also figurative. Now somewhat archaic. ΘΚΠ the world > textiles and clothing > clothing > wearing clothing > nakedness or state of being unclothed > [adverb] naked as a worm?a1366 nakedlyc1425 to the skin?1518 in one's (pure) naturals1579 in puris naturalibus1581 unclothedlya1626 puris naturalibus1626 with nothing on1678 uncoveredly1683 in the buff1803 Adamically1860 in the (also one's) altogether1894 in the raw1941 in the nuddy1953 c1390 W. Hilton Expos. Qui habitat & Bonum Est (1954) 56 And he is laft as naked & as pore as a mon [perh. read mon robbed] of al þe gode þat he had to þe bare skynne. ?1518 A. Barclay Fyfte Eglog sig. C.iii They clyp vs, they poll vs, they py vs to the skyn. 1581 J. Derricke Image Irelande ii. sig. Eiv^v An other sorte thei spoile, euen naked to the skin: And leaue hym nothyng for to wrappe, his naked bodie in. 1613 S. Purchas Pilgrimage 749 The Sauages..giuing all to their naked skinne..for the trifles he gaue them. a1639 W. Whately Prototypes (1640) ii. xxxiv. 181 The Egyptians would rather sell themselves to the skinne, yea sell themselves and all, then they would..take corne by force. a1640 P. Massinger & J. Fletcher Very Woman v. v. 35 in P. Massinger 3 New Playes (1655) We were boarded, pillag'd to the skin, and after Twice sold for slaves. 1751 T. Smollett Peregrine Pickle I. xi. 81 He was stripped to the skin with the utmost expedition by order of his affrighted parent. 1767 W. Harte Amaranth 137 Proud of the wit, and heedless of the sin, They strip, and sell the christian to the skin. 1808 J. Jamieson Etymol. Dict. Sc. Lang. at Tirr Tir one to the skin, i.e. strip him naked. 1851 W. C. Spooner Youatt's On Struct. & Dis. Horse (new ed.) xxi. 411 As well may a man with a great coat on attempt to run a race with another stripped almost to the skin. 1877 J. Cook Biology viii. 162 Capital in our great municipalities is fleeced now to the skin. 1928 D. Barnes Ryder xli. 232 I am all charity an [sic] the supplicant be truly tattered to the skin. a1979 H. Boswell Town House, Country House (1990) ii. 20 ‘It was a good thing Mr O'Neill was here to distract him,’ she said, ‘for he was set on stripping down to the skin.’ b. Through all one's garments; (hence) thoroughly, completely. Chiefly in wet (also soaked, etc.) to the skin. ΘΚΠ the world > relative properties > wholeness > completeness > completely [phrase] > thoroughly > from beginning to end or through and through to the boneOE through and throughc1225 out and outc1300 from top to tail1303 out and inc1390 (from) head to heel (also heels)c1400 (from) head to foot (also feet)c1425 from top to (into, unto) toec1425 to the skin1526 to one's (also the) finger (also fingers') ends1530 from first to last1536 up and down1542 whole out1562 to the pith1587 to the back1594 from A to (also until) Z1612 from clew to earing1627 from top to bottom1666 back and edge1673 all hollow1762 (all) to pieces1788 from A to Za1821 to one's (also the) fingertips1825 to one's fingernails1851 from tip to toe1853 down to the ground1859 to the backbone1864 right the way1867 pur sang1893 from the ground up1895 in and out1895 from soda (card) to hock1902 1526 C. Mery Talys sig. Fi^v Well washyd & wett to the skyn. 1582 W. Allen Briefe Hist. Glorious Martyrdom sig. C1 After these iiij had bene searched vnto their skinnes, and nothing found vpon them. 1589 J. Lyly Pappe with Hatchet sig. A2^v We care not for a Scottish mist, though it wet vs to the skin. 1608 W. Shakespeare King Lear xi. 7 This tempestious storme Inuades vs to the skin . View more context for this quotation 1681 Heraclitus Ridens 15 Nov. 2/1 ‘Udds Bobblekens,’ quoth he, ‘I were wet to the skin.’ 1749 J. Hervey Medit. & Contempl. (ed. 5) II. 263 The Ploughman, soaked to the skin, leaves his half-tilled Acre. 1749 L. Pilkington Mem. (new ed.) II. 201 It snowed violently, insomuch that I, who had only a Chintz gown on, was wet to the Skin. 1764 S. Foote Mayor of Garret i. 12 I don't believe..that they were ever wet to the skin in their lives. 1822 J. Galt Steam-boat 258 An even-doun thunder-plump came on, that..drookit the Doctor to the skin. c1885 A. W. Pinero in M. R. Booth Eng. Plays of 19th Cent. (1973) IV. 338 I'm wet to the skin and frightfully hungry! 1905 Westm. Gaz. 8 July 2/2 Arriving in an Irish ‘misting’, drenched to the skin. 1931 Internat. Jrnl. Ethics 41 422 Philosopheress to the skin, she is all things to all men. 1943 M. McLaverty White Mare & Other Stories 63 Coming home he was wet to the skin, but there was great joy in his heart for he felt now there'd be rain to-morrow. 2000 K. Atkinson Emotionally Weird (2001) 23 Maybe that's true, but it doesn't stop the cold rain from soaking us to the skin or the gales blowing in our hair. P3. In phrases denoting severe or unfair treatment, or summary punishment, as to pull the skin over a person's ears and variants, to have (also take) the skin off a person's back, etc. ΚΠ a1393 J. Gower Confessio Amantis (Fairf.) vii. l. 2897 (MED) Out of his skyn he was beflain Al quyk. c1405 (c1395) G. Chaucer Canon's Yeoman's Tale (Ellesmere) (1875) G. §4. l. 1273 The deuel, out of his skyn Hym terve, I pray to god, for his falshede. ?c1430 (c1400) J. Wyclif Eng. Wks. (1880) 73 (MED) Tyrauntis..taken here skyn fro þe bak. c1475 (c1399) Mum & Sothsegger (Cambr. Ll.4.14) (1936) ii. l. 126 Ȝe..plucked and pulled hem anon to þe skynnes. c1475 (c1399) Mum & Sothsegger (Cambr. Ll.4.14) (1936) ii. l. 32 (MED) Þey plucked þe plomayle from þe pore skynnes. 1549 H. Latimer 2nd Serm. before Kynges Maiestie 3rd Serm. sig. Hviii She can brynge the Iudges skyne ouer hys eares. 1549 H. Latimer 2nd Serm. before Kynges Maiestie 3rd Serm. sig. Hviii^v He wyl for wyddowes sakes..plucke the Iudges skyne ouer theyr heades. 1621 T. W. tr. S. Goulart Wise Vieillard 55 Many..who in regard of their age,..being esteemed as dead men, haue made young men to tremble and quake, who earst purposed to plucke their skin ouer their eares. 1671 M. D'Assigny tr. P. Gautruche Poet. Hist. ii. v. 159 Apollo was the Victor, therefore he hang'd Marsyas upon a Tree, and pull'd his skin over his ears. 1717 C. Gildon tr. Heliodorus Adventures Theagenes & Chariclia II. viii. 105 Know otherwise, that I have ordered you to be laid in Chains, and brought hither in their Room, and that I shall pull your Skin over your Ears. 1799 W. Scott tr. J. W. von Goethe Goetz of Berlichingen i. 6 If we durst but once drub their masters so, who drag the skin over our ears! 1839 C. Dickens Nicholas Nickleby viii. 70 ‘Let any boy speak a word without leave,’ said Mr. Squeers, mildly, ‘and I'll take the skin off his back.’ 1852 W. G. Simms As Good as Comedy iv. 56 Jake, my boy, I've come here to-day to strip the skin off you altogether. 1919 G. B. Shaw O'Flaherty V.C. in Heartbreak House, Great Catherine, & Playlets of War 185 My mother would have taken the skin off my back if I'd ever let on to have any other king than Parnell. 1953 E. Simon Past Masters iii. 205 A lesser man woold [sic] have had the skin off for that. 2006 T. Field Squat ix. 188 He would take the skin off your back if he could. P4. In proverbial phrases relating to the hunting and trading of animal skins. †a. Denoting the extent or limits of one's obligations. Obsolete. ΚΠ c1450 MS Douce 52 in Festschrift zum XII. Neuphilologentage (1906) 50 (MED) I kepe no more but the skyn of the catt. 1555 J. Heywood Two Hundred Epigrammes with Thyrde sig. B.vi We can haue no more of the fox but the skyn: And the foxe thynkth that, to much for vs to wyn. 1570 in Hist. MSS. Comm.: Cal. MSS Marquis of Salisbury (1883) I. 489 in Parl. Papers (C. 3777) XXXVI. 1 You can have no more of the cat but the skin. 1582 T. Watson Poems (Arb.) 96 Besides his Skinne, the Fox hath nought to pay. 1647 J. Trapp Comm. Epist. & Rev. (Rom. iv. 6) Every Fox must pay his own skin to the flaier. 1657 A. B. tr. J. Buxtorf Jewish Synagogue i. 12 Every Fox should give his own skin to the Currier to be pulled off, and to suffer his own hairs to be plucked out at his pleasure. b. Denoting premature action or overconfident anticipation of success. Now rare. ΚΠ 1567 in Cal. State Papers Scotl. (1900) II. 392 Theye coulde not marchaundyze for the beares skynne before they had hym. 1577 tr. ‘F. de L'Isle’ Legendarie sig. Eviij Selling the beares skinne which yet they had not taken. 1600 W. Shakespeare Henry V iv. iii. 94 The man that once did sell the Lions skin, While the beast liued, was kild with hunting him. a1690 J. Rushworth Hist. Coll.: Third Pt. (1692) I. 436 We must not dispose of the Bears Skin till the Bear be Dead. 1835 E. Bulwer-Lytton Rienzi II. v. iii. 231 Are ye dividing the skin while the lion lives. 1858 D. Costello Millionaire of Mincing Lane xvii. 146 That reckoning which sells the skin of the bear before the beast is captured. 1899 Westm. Gaz. 30 Nov. 5/2 I do not like to divide the skin before we have caught the bear. 1984 K. M. Setton Papacy & Levant IV. xxiv. 1066/2 As far as that went, however, Rambouillet agreed with a number of other informed persons that it was a matter of dividing the skin before they had caught the bear. P5. a. to be skin and bone (also bones): to be very thin or emaciated. to skin and bone (also bones): to the point of emaciation or complete despair. Also as a n. (also skin-and-boner): a very thin or emaciated person or animal (rare). Also occasionally skin-and-bony adj. ΘΚΠ the world > life > the body > bodily shape or physique > slim shape or physique > [adjective] > thin leanc1000 thinc1000 swonga1300 meagrea1398 empty?c1400 (as) thin (also lean, rank) as a rakec1405 macilent?a1425 rawc1425 gauntc1440 to be skin and bone (also bones)c1450 leany?a1475 swampc1480 scarrya1500 pinched1514 extenuate1528 lean-fleshed1535 carrion-lean1542 spare1548 lank1553 carrion1565 brawn-fallen1578 raw-bone1590 scraggeda1591 thin-bellied1591 rake-lean1593 bare-boned1594 forlorn1594 Lented1594 lean-looked1597 shotten herring1598 spiny1598 starved1598 thin-belly1598 raw-boned1600 larbar1603 meagry?1603 fleshless1605 scraggy1611 ballow1612 lank-leana1616 skinnya1616 hagged1616 scraggling1616 carrion-like1620 extenuated1620 thin-gutted1620 haggard1630 scrannel1638 leanisha1645 skeletontal1651 overlean1657 emaciated1665 slank1668 lathy1672 emaciate1676 nithered1691 emacerated1704 lean-looking1713 scranky1735 squinny-gut(s)1742 mauger1756 squinny1784 angular1789 etiolated1791 as thin (also lean) as a rail1795 wiry1808 slink1817 scranny1820 famine-hollowed1822 sharp featured1824 reedy1830 scrawny1833 stringy1833 lean-ribbeda1845 skeletony1852 famine-pinched1856 shelly1866 flesh-fallen1876 thinnish1884 all horn and hide1890 unfurnished1893 bone-thin1899 underweight1899 asthenic1925 skin-and-bony1935 skinny-malinky1940 skeletal1952 pencil-neck1960 c1450 in F. J. Furnivall Hymns to Virgin & Christ (1867) 73 (MED) Ful of fleissche Y was to fele, Now..Me is lefte But skyn & boon. a1456 J. Lydgate Bycorne & Chychevache (Trin. Cambr. R.3.20) 84 in Minor Poems (1934) ii. 436 I am but skyn and boon. 1548 Hall's Vnion: Edward V f. xvi^v In..whose reigne she dyed, when she had nothyng but a reueled skynne and bone. 1555 J. Heywood Two Hundred Epigrammes with Thyrde sig. A.vi^v Yet art thou skyn and bone. 1617 F. Moryson Itinerary i. 251 My self being nothing but skin and bone, as one that languished in a Consumption. a1648 Ld. Herbert Life (1976) 10 She Languished and pinde away to skinne and bone. 1748 S. Richardson Clarissa VII. liii. 201 Her features are so regular..that were she only skin and bone, she must be a beauty. 1792 W. Borrow in M. F. G.-B. Giner & M. Montgomery Knaresborough Workhouse Daybk. (2003) 187 She nothing but skin and bone and a boundance of Lumber. 1823 Blackwood's Mag. July 66 Steeds of various degrees, high-mettled racer, or hunter, Bit of blood, skin-and-boner, pad, hack, mule, jackass, or donkey. 1827 tr. Narr. Captivity de Brisson in tr. Perils & Captivity 224 We arrived, extenuated and reduced to skin and bone. 1870 C. Dickens Edwin Drood xxii. 176 The breast, which is the only delicate cuts in a duck, always goes in a direction which I cannot imagine where, and your own plate comes down so miserably skin-and-bony! 1888 ‘W. Châteauclair’ Young Seigneur 73 ‘Heh, heh, heh!’ cried an old skin-and-bones. 1906 Daily Chron. 26 Nov. 4/7 What's wearing me to skin and bone? My neighbour's grinding gramophone. 1935 C. Day Lewis Time to Dance & Other Poems 61 You silly great fulminating bogeyman! You're nothing but a laugh and a daft skin-and-bony man. 1955 G. Greene Loser takes All i. vii. 43 The horse was all skin and bone and I had forgotten that the road was uphill. 1988 S. Deshpande That Long Silence ii. 68 Look at your arms—just skin and bone. 1998 Courier-Jrnl. (Louisville, Kentucky) 15 June a4/2 Their faces and limbs shrink to skin and bones. 2006 Racing Post (Nexis) 2 June 20 He was in a dreadful state. He was pretty much skin and bones. b. skin and grief: emaciated; weak and starving. Frequently attributive. Also as n.: an emaciated or starving person (rare). ΚΠ 1779 J. Warner in J. H. Jesse G. Selwyn & his Contemp. (1844) IV. 30 Such a number of pinch-bellied, woebegone, skin-and-grief, lanthorn-jawed, soup-maigre subjects. ?1837 E. Stirling Pickwick Club iii. vi. 50 What's your name, young skin and grief? 1856 E. L. C. Follen Old Garret II. 79 Perhaps it is your fault that poor Scrimp is nothing but skin and grief. 1887 T. Hardy Woodlanders I. xii. 226 He was almost well, but is much worse again; a man all skin and grief he ever were. a1903 H. Latham in Eng. Dial. Dict. (1903) IV. 121/1 [Yorkshire] Ay, poor little minnit, he's all skin an' grief. 1912 D. H. Lawrence Let. 24 Dec. (1962) I. 172 They want me to have form: that means, they want me to have their pernicious ossiferous skin-and-grief form, and I won't. 1912 P. C. Wren Dew & Mildew xxv. 420 We had a chap at school called ‘Skin-and-Grief’. 1983 R. Brown Voy. of Iceberg 110 Their weight is down to fifty pounds and a pup that's all skin and grief is no use to anyone. P6. in (also with) a whole skin: unwounded, uninjured. Frequently in †to sleep in a whole skin, to keep a whole skin: to escape unscathed, to remain uninjured. Now somewhat archaic. ΘΚΠ the world > health and disease > be in state of health [verb (intransitive)] > remain uninjured to sleep in a whole skin1534 the world > health and disease > [adjective] > of health: good > free from injury unwoundedOE wholeOE unwemmedc1175 hailc1275 wemlessc1330 sound as a trouta1450 unmaimeda1470 unmaggled1508 unmenyied?a1513 in (also with) a whole skin1534 woundless1579 unmartyred1580 wound-free1609 invulnered1613 fist-free1615 invulneratea1680 unmangled1885 1534 N. Udall Floures for Latine Spekynge gathered oute of Terence f. 170 I am a conquerour yf I may depart or escape with a hole skynne [L. latere tecto abscedere]. 1543 T. Becon Invect. against Swearing Pref. f. iii^v It is good sleapyng in an whole skynne. 1596 T. Nashe Haue with you to Saffron-Walden sig. M3^v The foole is crafty inough to sleepe in a whole skin. 1600 P. Holland tr. Livy Rom. Hist. xxxii. xxi. 823 b To enter into no armes at all, to sit still and sleepe in a hole skin. c1643 N. Boteler Dialogues (1929) (modernized text) 38 They propound it to themselves as the safer course to receive their pay in a whole skin. 1644 S. Rutherford Serm. House of Commons 47 Some sell Religion to be free from plundering, others to keep a whole skin, and to go to heaven, as they imagine without losse of bloud. 1694 L. Echard tr. Plautus Epidicus iv. viii, in tr. Plautus Comedies 110 Begon in a moment, as you hope to sleep in a whole skin. 1704 J. Pitts True Acct. Mohammetans ii. 12 The Algerines are a very timerous sort of People, willing to sleep in a whole Skin. 1748 S. Richardson Clarissa V. xxi. 193 Honest Hickman may now sleep in a whole skin. 1813 R. Southey March to Moscow x, in Poet. Wks. (1838) VI. 221 He was besides in a very great fright, For a whole skin he liked to be in. 1878 C. H. Spurgeon Metrop. Tabernacle Pulpit XXIII. 563 Others think the Gospel is true: Erasmus feels sure that it is, but Erasmus wants to die in a whole skin. 1897 W. E. Norris Marietta's Marriage xliii We'll assume..that your anxiety to keep a whole skin justified you in taking to your heels. 1904 E. Glasgow Deliverance v. vi. 499 If that young rascal wants to keep a whole skin he'd better stay off this place. 1932 R. Macaulay They were Defeated i. xii. 92 He gets through with it with a whole skin. 2005 L. A. Lawson Gorgon's Mask 11 The child Thomas feared that he would not get out of his predicament with a whole skin. P7. by (also with) the skin of one's teeth: by a very narrow margin, barely, only just. Also occasionally with ellipsis of the preposition. [After biblical Hebrew bĕʿōr šinnāi (Job 19:20), lit. ‘with the skin of my teeth’, thus in quot. 1560 a literalism of translation, which its use in the King James Bible helped to make proverbial in English. However, the sense of the passage in Job is uncertain and disputed, as is the grammatical analysis and meaning of the Hebrew verb form immediately preceding the noun phrase; many recent commentators doubt that the Hebrew text offers any support for the notion of a ‘narrow escape’. The Vulgate and Septuagint render the passage differently (Vulgate: et derelicta sunt tantummodo labia circa dentes meos ‘only my lips are left around my teeth’; Septuagint: τὰ δὲ ὁστᾶ μου ἑν ὁδοῦσιν ἔχεται ‘my bones are held in my teeth’), the Septuagint apparently following an emendation of the Hebrew text. Compare the Wycliffite Bible, following the text of the Vulgate: ▸ a1382 Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) (Bodl. 959) Job xix. 20 Oneli þe lippis ben laft aboute my teeþ. ] ΘΚΠ the world > action or operation > difficulty > [phrase] > with difficulty of (also by, with) hardc1330 with needa1500 by (also with) the skin of one's teeth1560 1560 Bible (Geneva) Job xix. 20 I haue escaped with the skinne of my tethe. 1647 Earl of Clarendon Contempl. Psalms in Tracts (1727) 510 He reckoned himself only escaped with the skin of his teeth, that he had nothing left. 1774 E. Allen Brief Narr. Proc. Govt. New-York 72 They left their Possessions and Farms to the Conquerers, and escaped with the Skin of their Teeth. 1816 J. Marsden Narr. Mission Nova Scotia Pref. 8 Having escaped by the skin of my teeth, I may be allowed to look back upon the dangers I have passed and with the voice of salutary warning point them out to others. 1825 J. Neal Brother Jonathan I. 109 Skin o' my teeth, I guess, if it hadn't been for Watty boy. 1893 Nation 9 Feb. 99/2 His eldest son was implicated in the robbery.., and came off by the skin of his teeth. 1941 J. R. R. Tolkien Let. 6–8 Mar. (1995) 52 I ought to have got a good scholarship, I only landed by the skin of my teeth an exhibition of £60 at Exeter. 1955 Times 16 May 12/2 On each occasion France escaped with the skin of their teeth. 2002 C. Slaughter Before Knife (2003) viii. 133 I made it here only by the skin of my teeth, I'm telling you. P8. a. to jump (also leap) out of one's skin. (a) To feel extreme delight or excitement; to be full of joy or high spirits. Also occasionally to be out of one's skin. Now rare. ΘΚΠ the mind > emotion > excitement > be or become excited [verb (intransitive)] > leap or skip with excitement dancec1400 to jump (also leap) out of one's skin1567 1567 W. Painter Palace of Pleasure II. xxi. f. 154 Master Philippo, was so well pleased, as he was like to leape out of his skin for ioy. 1584 B. R. tr. Herodotus Famous Hyst. i. f. 38 Hymselfe as one ready to leape out of hys skynne for joy,..declared [etc.]. c1616 R. C. Times' Whistle (1871) vii. 2976 The marchant, if his gaines doe safe come in, Is with ioy ready to leape out on's skinne. 1668 H. More Divine Dialogues (1713) iii. xxxvi. 283 How transported are my Spirits, that I am ready even to skip out of my skin for Joy! 1706 S. Centlivre Love at Venture v. 59 I, I, I am so over-joy'd, I shall jump out of my skin. 1733 H. Fielding Miser (London ed.) v. i. 69 I am ready to leap out of my Skin for Joy. 1808 G. Colman Blue Devils i. i. 22 'Twould make me jump out of my skin, for joy. 1857 Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. June 656/1 Any other child in the village would have leapt out of her skin to have her face upon my sketch-book. 1860 A. Trollope Castle Richmond III. xiii. 246 So is we all ould frinds, an we're all glad—out of our skins wid gladness. 1922 J. Joyce Ulysses iii. 710 An admirer he signed it I near jumped out of my skin. (b) To start violently with surprise or alarm. Frequently with almost, nearly, etc. ΘΚΠ the mind > mental capacity > expectation > surprise, unexpectedness > happen or move unexpectedly [verb (intransitive)] > act with surprise abash?c1400 startc1405 startle1576 to raise one's eyebrow(s) (or an eyebrow)1849 to jump (also leap) out of one's skin1860 gloppen- 1860 ‘M. Harland’ Nemesis xxx. 431 There came sech a knock at the door that I a'most jumped out of my skin. 1915 Condor 17 7 It was so unexpected and so discordant that I nearly jumped out of my skin (figuratively speaking), entertaining the feelings of a pedestrian who hears a shrieking auto siren at his back. 1942 T. Kitching Diary 25 Jan. in Life & Death in Changi (1998) iii. 23 Says he, ‘1875? Yes, I was living in this house then.’ I nearly jumped out of my skin. ‘What! In 1875?’ 1981 ‘J. Gash’ Lovejoy: Vatican Rip (1986) viii. 71 A pebble dislodging somewhere practically made me leap out of my skin. 2001 C. Glazebrook Madolescents 74 I nearly jump out of my skin when the phone rings. b. out of one's skin: to the point of exhaustion; (in later use usually more generally) to an excessive or exceptional degree; exceptionally. ΘΚΠ the world > action or operation > manner of action > effort or exertion > [phrase] > with excessive exertion out of one's skin1578 1578 A. Golding tr. Seneca Conc. Benefyting iii. xix. f. 36^v He lackyeth after him when he iourneyeth, he tendeth him in his sicknesse, he tooyleth himself out of his skin [L. labore summo colit] too doo him ease. 1592 T. Nashe Pierce Penilesse (Brit. Libr. copy) sig. D3 The Souldiour may fight himselfe out of his skinne. 1605 S. Rowlands Hell's broke Loose sig. C When Phisicke comes in Gold, and Siluer's kinde, To thinke on this, what's hee, that would not craue it, And fight himselfe out of his skin to haue it? 1621 T. Taylor Parable of Sower & Seed 178 Yet are they not content, but repine and vexe themselues,..yea, and toyle themselues out of their skinnes. 1693 S. R. tr. A. Baillet Life M. Des Cartes vi. 195 M. Sorbiere..sought out other Subjects to plague and quite weary Monsieur Des Cartes out of his Skin. 1866 A. Trollope Belton Estate I. vii. 162 Why should he be made..to drive the poor beast out of its skin? 1891 N. Gould Double Event xv. 101 The horse..looked in splendid condition, ‘fit to jump out of his skin’, to use a racing term. 1978 Daily Mirror 18 Oct. 32/1 Barnes played out of his skin against Blackpool recently. 1989 Taxi Globe 15 Nov. 3/5 We were all worried out of our skins. 2006 FIFA Mag. Oct. 28/1 Hislop played out of his skin to keep his team in the game against a superior side. c. to fly out of one's skin: to lose one's composure or self-control, esp. because of anger, fear, or frustration; spec. = Phrases 8a(b). ΚΠ 1591 (?a1425) Three Kings (Huntington) in R. M. Lumiansky & D. Mill Chester Myst. Cycle (1974) I. 162 (MED) He would goe wood..and flye out of his skynne. 1722 S. Croxall tr. Æsop Fables lxix. 122 You, who are so stout and formidable at all other times, if you do but hear the cry of the Hounds, are ready to fly out of your Skin for fear. 1840 Knickerbocker Mar. 227 Do go and leave me, or I shall fly out of my skin. 1851 S. G. Goodrich Robert Merry's Museum 16 When the king beheld the false princess, he almost flew out of his skin with disappointment and anger. 1912 Amer. Mag. Apr. 759/2 At the end of a week, he'll be simply gasping for some golf, or tennis, or croquet even. Oh, he'll be ready to fly out of his skin. 1997 K. Eagle Night Remembers (1998) 259 All it took to send her flying out of her skin was a knock on the door. †P9. as the skin between one's brows and variants: (used adverbially as an intensifier of an adjective) completely, utterly, absolutely. Obsolete.Chiefly in as honest as the skin between one's brows, in later use usually with allusion to Shakespeare (see quot. 1600¹). ΘΚΠ the world > relative properties > quantity > greatness of quantity, amount, or degree > high or intense degree > greatly or very much [phrase] > extremely > specific emphasizing a quality as the skin between one's brows1575 as clean, clear, dry as a whistle1786 1575 W. Stevenson Gammer Gurtons Nedle v. ii. sig. Ei^v I am as true, I wold thou knew, as skin bet wene thy browes. 1600 W. Shakespeare Much Ado about Nothing iii. v. 12 An old man sir, and his wittes are not so blunt, as God helpe I would desire they were, but infaith honest, as the skin between his browes . View more context for this quotation 1600 B. Jonson Every Man out of his Humor ii. i. sig. Eiv Punt. Is he magnanimous? Gent. As the skin betweene your browes sir. View more context for this quotation 1631 B. Jonson Bartholmew Fayre iv. v. 64 in Wks. II Tou [sic] shalt be as honesht as the skinne betweene his hornsh. a1643 W. Cartwright Ordinary (1651) v. iv. 83 I am as honest as the skin that is Between thy Brows? 1737 J. Miller Universal Passion iv. ii. 51 He's an old Man, Sir, and his Wits are not quite so ready as 'twere to be wish'd; but in troth he's as honest as the Skin between his Brows. 1783 G. Colman tr. Horace Art Poetry 32 As honest as the skin between his brows! 1861 D. Costello Holidays with Hobgoblins 95 He was good-natured to a fault, and honest as the skin between his brows. P10. skin and birn: see burn n.³ 2b. P11. colloquial. in a bad skin: in a bad mood or temper. Also in a good skin: in a good mood. Now chiefly English regional and historical. ΚΠ 1788 F. Grose Classical Dict. Vulgar Tongue (ed. 2) at Skin In a bad skin, out of temper, in an ill humour. a1825 R. Forby Vocab. E. Anglia (1830) 137 Good-mind, Good-skin... They both express good humour. Ex...‘he is in a bad skin to-day’. 1863 C. G. Rowe Fisherman's Niece iii. 33 ‘You don't seem in a good skin, brother, tonight,’ said Jenny's aunt. 1911 B. Swift Old Dance Master xvi. 258 If it ain't stilton, if it ain't fit to put a feller in a good skin, and if I don't love 'er as 'ard as a 'ammer, I'll be shot! 1929 F. Manning Middle Parts of Fortune I. vii. 152 I have been in a bad skin ever since we left Sand-pits. 1957 H. Hall Parish's Dict. Sussex Dial. (new ed.) 121/2 He's in a bad skin s'morning, 'e's got out o' bed the wrong side. 2003 M. Jennings Let Loose Dogs xxxii. 208 I was still in a bad skin. What I said didn't mean anything. P12. a. to get under the skin of: to reach or display a deep understanding of. Cf. to get into someone's skin at Phrases 1a. ΘΚΠ the mind > mental capacity > understanding > intelligence, cleverness > sharpness, shrewdness, insight > achieve understanding [phrase] to see, etc. through (also into) a (brick, mud, stone) wall1598 to read someone like an open book1827 there are no flies on1848 to get under the skin of1862 to get or have (someone or something) taped1914 1862 Bentley's Misc. 52 22 I have been invited to all sorts of houses, I have seen all sorts of people, I have tried to get under the skin of all classes of intelligences. 1927 H. Crane Let. 12 Sept. (1965) 307 I think I really succeed in getting under the skin of this glorious and dying animal [sc. the Indian]. 1942 A. Christie Five Little Pigs i. iv. 32 I think you are interested in—character, shall we say?.. To get under the skin, as it were, of your criminal. 1959 M. Summerton Small Wilderness i. 11 He got under the skin of the rôle and lived it... He was given a small part in the spring production. 1999 Empire Nov. 34/5 A psychiatrist gets under the skin of a long lost primatologist who has ‘gone native’. 2004 HMV Choice Mar. 30/2 Amazing Grace, Ave Maria and Santa Lucia serve to demonstrate his ability to get under the skin of a sacred tune and raise the hairs on the back of your neck. b. to get under a person's skin: to annoy or irritate someone intensely; (also) to fill someone's mind in a compelling or persistent way. ΘΚΠ the mind > emotion > anger > irritation > irritate [verb (transitive)] gremec893 grillc897 teenOE mispay?c1225 agrillec1275 oftenec1275 tarya1300 tarc1300 atenec1320 enchafec1374 to-tarc1384 stingc1386 chafe?a1400 pokec1400 irec1420 ertc1440 rehete1447 nettlec1450 bog1546 tickle1548 touch1581 urge1593 aggravate1598 irritate1598 dishumour1600 to wind up1602 to pick at ——1603 outhumour1607 vex1625 bloody1633 efferate1653 rankle1659 spleen1689 splenetize1700 rile1724 roil1742 to put out1796 to touch (also get, catch, etc.) (a person) on the raw1823 roughen1837 acerbate1845 to stroke against the hair, the wrong way (of the hair)1846 nag1849 to rub (a person, etc.) up the wrong way1859 frump1862 rattle1865 to set up any one's bristles1873 urticate1873 needle1874 draw1876 to rough up1877 to stick pins into1879 to get on ——1880 to make (someone) tiredc1883 razoo1890 to get under a person's skin1896 to get a person's goat1905 to be on at1907 to get a person's nanny1909 cag1919 to get a person's nanny-goat1928 cagmag1932 peeve1934 tick-off1934 to get on a person's tits1945 to piss off1946 bug1947 to get up a person's nose1951 tee1955 bum1970 tick1975 1896 G. Ade Artie vi. 54 Say, Miller, if I was to beat his whole face off I could n't ketch even. He got way under the skin on me. 1927 H. T. Lowe-Porter tr. T. Mann Magic Mountain (London ed.) I. v. 300 What's the matter? Has anything got under your skin? 1933 F. Baldwin Innocent Bystander (1935) vii. 132 That pleased her, she had got under his skin, he had at least admitted something. 1938 E. Bowen Death of Heart i. viii. 143 ‘That is why she annoys me so.’ ‘You once said she'd been very kind.’ ‘Indeed she has—that's her way of getting under my skin.’ 1948 L. A. G. Strong Trevannion xvi. 297 ‘Aren't you perhaps afraid the inadequacy may be on your side?’.. ‘Damn you, Walter. You do get under a man's skin.’ 1972 D. Delman Sudden Death iii. 58 Do I bug you, Mr Mathews? Do I get under your skin? 1977 C. McCullough Thorn Birds xvii. 455 I can keep you, because I'll never let you get under my skin. 1993 Q Jan. 61/1 The songs are quite structured and the melodies are not big melodies but they get under the skin. 2000 J. Harris Blackberry Wine (2001) xxxii. 166 He argued constantly with his mother..—everything got under his skin that year. P13. under the skin (also skins): in reality; according to the true rather the apparent nature of something. Originally in sisters under the skin.The phrase sisters under the skin derives from Kipling (see quot. 1896); Kipling's passage was widely quoted in the form ‘sisters under the skin’ in the early 20th cent. ΘΚΠ the mind > mental capacity > knowledge > conformity with what is known, truth > [adverb] > in reality in substancea1393 indeed1412 in realitya1513 in nature1605 solidly1625 under the skin (also skins)1896 1896 R. Kipling Seven Seas 193 For the Colonel's lady an' Judy O'Grady Are sisters under their skins! 1903 C. M. Gayley Representative Eng. Comedies I. 430 If he appears more ready than Alexander was to yield his victim, it is only because a keeper's daughter and a princess are ‘sisters under the skin’. 1925 Amer. Mercury Oct. 215/1 That diplomacy and force have always been brothers under the skins is a truism that most writers upon the former will not admit. 1946 A. Christie Hollow iii. 31 They were the same, sisters under the skin, Mrs. Pearstock from Tottenham and Mrs. Forrester of Park Lane. 1949 A. Wilson Wrong Set 57 Like called to like. The Colonel's lady and Lily O'Grady were both ‘lumpen’ under the skin. 1975 D. Francis High Stakes xi. 160 Merchant bankers are pirates under the skin. 1990 N.Y. Woman Oct. 74/1 My gayness doesn't assure me closeness to women—we're not, ipso facto, sisters under the skin. 1996 I. Q. Hunter in P. J. Davies Representing & Imagining Amer. xi. 118 Wired for killing, all men are psychopaths under the skin. P14. a. (a) colloquial. no skin off a person's nose: used to indicate that one is not offended or adversely affected by something. ΘΚΠ the mind > emotion > indifference > [phrase] > a matter of indifference to one all the same1803 no skin off a person's nose1911 1911 M. Glass Abe & Mawruss iv. 130 ‘Of course, Max,’ Abe added,..‘it ain't no skin off my nose.’ 1926 S. Lewis Mantrap viii. 95 If you think..that it's any skin off my nose to lose the pleasures of your company..you got another think coming. 1960 D. Lytton Goddam White Man v. 113 But it was no skin off my nose that she was dead. 2005 N. Hornby Long Way Down 30 I'll go down there tonight if you want. Before I kill myself. I don't mind. No skin off my nose. (b) no skin off a person's ass (also back, bugle, ear): = no skin off a person's nose at Phrases 14a(a). Also no skin off (a person). ΚΠ 1920 S. Lewis Main St. xxv. 312 Go to it. No skin off my ear, Nat. Think I want to be fifth wheel in the coach? 1930 Amer. Mercury Dec. 420/1 It ain't no skin off of Hymie's bugle. 1934 J. O'Hara Appointment in Samarra vi. 158 Okay. No skin off my ass. 1938 D. Baker Young Man with Horn i. iv. 41 It was no skin off Jeff what colour his old lady painted the piano. 1971 B. Malamud Tenants 35 Make it like eight [o'clock] or around that if it's no skin off you. If I miss a day don't fret on it. 1972 R. Milner in W. King Black Short Story Anthol. 378 Then Clyde said it was no skin off his ass. 1982 New Yorker 2 Jan. 25/1 I expected that much of him. It wouldn't have been any skin off his back. b. here's to the skin off your nose and variants: used as a toast. Now rare. ΘΚΠ the world > food and drink > drink > drinking > drinking salutations [interjection] > in drinking healths have towardsc1400 here's to1597 skol1600 tope1651 hob or nob1756 slainte1824 here's hoping, how, looking (at you), luck1888 santé1903 prosit1916 here's to the skin off your nose1925 (here's) mud in your eye1927 lechayim1932 1925 E. Fraser & J. Gibbons Soldier & Sailor Words 260 Here's to the skin off your nose: Your good health! 1936 P. G. Wodehouse Young Men in Spats ii. 42 ‘Well, skin off your nose,’ said Pongo. ‘Fluff in your latchkey,’ said Barmy. 1959 D. Eden Sleeping Bride ix. 85 Philip handed her a drink and she added, ‘Here's the skin off your nose.’ P15. in one's skin: unclothed, naked. Also in skins: without shirts (cf. sense 22). ΚΠ 1922 J. Joyce Ulysses iii. xviii. [Penelope] 714 I in my skin hopping around. 1956 H. Gold Man who was not with It xvi. 142 I asked her to bring her swimming clothes..because we were not to swim in our skins today. 1976 Western Mail (Cardiff) 27 Nov. The great day dawned, Wales v Africa, Wales in skins and Jack Sharkey's and S. Africa in white (skins meant no jerseys). 1991 S. S. Tepper Beauty xxii. 248 The little fool was going to let her clothes vanish and stand there in her skin, begging him to take her. 1998 Independent (Nexis) 10 July 31 Shirt-pulling and holding have become such standard defensive procedure players seem shocked when they are penalised... If it were not for the loss of income from the sales of replica shirts, teams might even consider playing in ‘skins’. P16. skin and blister n. [rhyming slang] British slang one's sister. ΘΚΠ society > society and the community > kinship or relationship > kinsman or relation > sibling > sister > [noun] sistereOE sis1596 tittiea1628 sissy1757 skin and blister1925 1925 E. Fraser & J. Gibbons Soldier & Sailor Words 260 Skin and blister, sister. (Rhyming slang.) 1935 ‘G. Ingram’ Cockney Cavalcade x. 170 I saw your skin and blister last night. 1959 W. Hall Long & Short & Tall ii. 89 I've got a little skin and blister back in Blighty. Twelve years old. 1987 P. Booth Sisters v. 46 Hey, that's my skin and blister, Pete—as we say in London. P17. slang (originally and chiefly in African-American usage). to give someone some skin and variants: to shake or slap hands together as a gesture of friendship or solidarity. Frequently in imperative use, as gimme some skin (also elliptically as skin). Also occasionally as a noun phrase denoting the action. ΘΚΠ the mind > emotion > love > friendliness > on friendly terms [phrase] > asking for gesture of friendship or solidarity gimme some skin1940 the mind > emotion > love > friendliness > [noun] > symbol of friendship > skin of palm as making contact in friendship skin1940 the mind > emotion > love > friendliness > be friendly [verb (intransitive)] > join hands in token of amity > slap or shake hands in gesture of friendship to give someone some skin1967 1940 N.Y. Amsterdam News 6 July 20/1 ‘Well, Jack, lay it on me! Gimme some skin.’ (Shakes hands with pal.) 1942 Z. N. Hurston in Amer. Mercury July 86 ‘Gimme some skin!’ ‘Lay de skin on me, pal!’ Sweet Back grabbed Jelly's outstretched hand and shook hard. 1944 D. Burley Orig. Handbk. Harlem Jive 85 The act of ‘Gimme-some-skin’ involves some theatricals, an intricate sense of timing, plenty of gestures. 1967 Harper's Mag. Nov. 62/2 Once—when I came in on the break behind him at precisely the right point—Pops gave me some skin. He reached out his dark old hand..and I turned my hand, palm up... Pops lightly brushed my open palm in a half-slap, the jive set's seal of approval. 1968 N. Cruz & J. Buckingham Run Baby Run iv. 38 Then he grinned and stuck out his hand. ‘Slip me some skin, Nicky. Me, I'm Carlos. President of the Mau Maus.’ 1974 H. L. Foster Ribbin', Jivin', & Playin' Dozens iv. 119 The viewer of TV sporting events will often observe black athletes, and whites too now, giving skin after a home run, a touchdown, or at the start of a basketball game. 2000 P. Beatty Tuff vii. 93 ‘Hey, it's hard dating a sister. Give me some skin on that one’, said Spencer, thrusting his palm toward Winston. 2003 V. O. Carter Such Sweet Thunder 318 ‘If you got the dime, I sure got the time!’ ‘Skin man!’ ‘I'm comin', mistah—can't you see how hard I'm breathin'?’ P18. colloquial (originally North American Business). to have (one's) skin in the game and variants: to have a stake in the success of something, esp. to have a financial or personal investment in a business; to be closely involved in something.It is not clear whether the metaphor underlying this phrase is to do with putting oneself at risk (cf. the metonymic uses of skin at Phrases 1c), or with risking one's money (cf. sense 6); both have been suggested. ΚΠ 1976 Infosystems Mar. 8/1 I suggest that the various groups of participants should consider that they do not have any skin in the game. 1986 Wall St. Jrnl. 7 Apr. 27/5 Others..don't have their skin in the game the way the marketing rep does. 1995 CIO 1 Feb. 30/3 I'm trying to negotiate an agreement to get the supplier's skin in the game. 1996 Observer 11 Aug. (Business section) 4/2 We want to make a step change in our clients' business—and we're willing to risk our own capital to do it... We're transforming the business by having skin in the game. 2005 N.Y. Times (National ed.) 23 Jan. ii. 29/4 We'll pay for the commission, but we want the orchestra to have some skin in the game. extracted from skinn. < as lemmas
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Phrases