Emily Dickinson Lexicon

SKIM'ING-TON, or SKIM'I-TRY, n.

A vulgar word from the Dan. skiemt, a jest or sport; skiemter, to jest, joke, sport; used in the phrase, to ride skimington or skimitry.

SKIM'MED, pp.

Taken from the surface; having the thick matter taken from the surface; brushed along.

SKIM'MER, n.

1. An utensil in the form of a scoop; used for skimming liquors.
2. One that skims over a subject. [Little used.]
3. A sea fowl, the cut-water, Rhyncops nigra.

SKIM'-MILK, or SKIM'MED-MILK, n.

Milk from which the cream has been taken.

SKIM'MING, ppr.

1. Taking from the surface, as cream from milk.
2. Gliding lightly along near the surface.

SKIM'MING-LY, adv.

By gliding along the surface.

SKIM'MINGS, n. [plur.]

Matter skimmed from the surface of liquors. – Edwards, West Indies.

SKIN, n.¹ [Sax. scin; Sw. skinn; Dan. skind, a skin; G. schinden, to flay; Ir. scann, a membrane; W. ysgin, a robe made of skin, a pelisse, said to be from cin, a spread or covering. But in Welsh, cèn is skin, peel or rind. This may signify a covering, or a peel, from stripping.]

1. The natural covering of animal bodies, consisting of the cuticle or scarf-skin, the rete mucosum, and the cutis or hide. The cuticle is very thin and insensible; the cutis is thicker and very sensible. Harvey.
2. A hide; a pelt; the skin of an animal separated from the body, whether green, dry or tanned.
3. The body; the person; in ludicrous language. – L'Estrange.
4. The hark or husk of a plant; the exterior coat of fruit and plants.

SKIN, v.i.

To be covered with skin; as, a wound skins over.

SKIN, v.t.

1. To strip off the skin or hide; to flay; to peel. – Ellis.
2. To cover with skin. – Dryden.
3. To cover superficially. – Addison.

SKIN'DEEP, a.

Superficial; not deep; slight. – Feltham.

SKIN'FLINT, n. [skin and flint.]

A very niggardly person.

SKINK, n. [Sax. scenc.]

1. Drink; pottage. [Obs.] – Bacon.
2. [L. scincus.] A small lizard of Egypt; also, the common name of a genus of lizards, with a long body entirely covered with rounded imbricate scales, all natives of warm climates. – Ed. Encyc.

SKINK, v.i. [Sax. scencan; G. and D. schenken; Dan. skienker; Sw. skänka; Ice. skenkia, to bestow, to make a present.]

To serve drink. [Obs.]

SKINK'ER, n.

One that serves liquors. [Obs.] – Shak.

SKIN'LESS, a. [from skin.]

Having a thin skin; as, skinless fruit.

SKIN'NED, pp.

1. Stripped of the skin; flayed.
2. Covered with skin.

SKIN'NER, n.

1. One that skins.
2. One that deals in skins, pelts or hides.

SKIN'NI-NESS, n.

The quality of being skinny.

SKIN'NING, ppr.

Stripping of the skin; flaying.

SKIN'NY, a.

Consisting of skin, or of skin only; wanting flesh. – Ray. Addison.

SKIP, n.¹

A leap; a bound; a spring. – Sidney.

SKIP, n.²

In music, a passage from one sound to another, by more than a degree at once. Busby.

SKIP, v.i. [Dan. kipper, to leapt. Ice. skopa.]

To leap; to bound; to spring; as a goat or lamb. The lamb thy riot dooms do bleed today, / Had he thy reason, would he skip and play? – Pope. To skip over, to pass without notice; to omit. – Bacon.

SKIP, v.t.

To pass over or by; to omit; to miss. They who have a mind to see the issue, may skip these two chapters. – Burnet.