Thursday, June 14, 2012

Skin Idioms


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?”


3 comments:

  1. What about "the hot skinny?" You sure have the hot skinny on skin idioms. I hadn't heard the rice pudding one.

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  2. Hi Anne,
    Though 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.

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  3. 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).

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