Skin Idioms
As
summer approaches, we’re all bound to see more skin. It’s time to
celebrate the skin we’re pleased to see or expose, while simultaneously
distracting ourselves from the skin we’d rather not see or expose.
The English language employs a good number of idioms that include the word skin.
Being a bit of a word nerd, I can hardly keep from laughing when simply reading
a page in an idioms dictionary. I hope this “page” I’ve compiled spreads a bit
of mirth:
-be
comfortable in one’s own skin
-by
the skin
of the teeth
-get
under one’s skin
-give
one some skin
-chicken
skin
-jump
out of one’s skin
-makes one’s skin crawl
-more
than one way to skin a cat
-no skin off one’s nose
-play
out of one’s skin
-save
one’s skin
-skin & bones
-skin
deep
-skin someone
alive
-skinny
dip
-soaked
to the skin
-thick-skinned
-thin-skinned
-won’t pull the skin off a rice pudding
Okay
valiant followers who recognized every last skin idiom in the list, let me know.
On the other hand, let me know if one or two caused you to think, “What the
heck does that mean?”
My thanks go out to this week’s
sources, Barron’s Handbook of Commonly Used American Idioms, Idiom
Connection, Using
English & the OED.
What about "the hot skinny?" You sure have the hot skinny on skin idioms. I hadn't heard the rice pudding one.
ReplyDeleteHi Anne,
ReplyDeleteThough I've heard "the hot skinny," I didn't run into it & it didn't come to mind. Great addition. Before researching this post I hadn't run into "won't pull the skin off a rice pudding," but isn't it beautiful? It applies to powerlessness, as in "My old '72 VW bus can't pull the skin off a rice pudding." Thanks for popping by.
Did you know that there actually IS only one way to skin a cat? I learned this in an anatomy class, although I'll refrain from elaborating on it here, so as not to offend all you kitty lovers out there in Charley-land (which includes me).
ReplyDelete