skinner 
marauders during the revolutionary war, pro- 
fessedly belonging to the American side, who 
infested the region between the British and 
American lines in New York, and committed 
depredations, especially upon the loyalists. 
[Slang.] 
This poor opinion of the Skinners was not confined to 
Mr. Caesar Thompson. . . . The convenience, and perhaps 
the necessities, of the leaders of the American arms in 
the neighlK>urhood of New York had induced them to 
employ certain subordinate agents, of extremely irregular 
habits, in executing their lesser plans of annoying the 
enemy. Cooper, The Spy, i. 
There were two sets of these scapegraces the "Cow- 
boys " or cattle-thieves, and the "Skinners," who took 
everything they could find. The Atlantic, LXVI. 511. 
4. A bird fat enough to burst the skin on fall- 
ing to the ground when shot. [Slang.] 
skinneryt (skin'er-i), . [ME. ski/nneri/; < skin 
+ -ery.'} Skins or furs collectively. 
To drapery & skijnnert/ euer haue ye a sight. 
liabees Booi(E. E. T. 8.), p. 180. 
skinniness (skin'i-nes), . 1. The state of 
being skinny, or like skin. 2. Leanness; 
emaciation. 
skinning-table (skin'ing-ta'bl), . A taxider- 
mists' table, provided with appliances for skin- 
ning and stuffing objects of natural history. 
With such precautions as these, birds most liable to be 
soiled reach the skinnimj-taMe in perfect order. 
Coues, Key to N. A. Birds (1884), p. 18. 
skinny (skin'i), a. [< xkin + -y 1 .] 1. Consist- 
ing of or having the nature of skin ; resembling 
skin or film; cutaneous; membranous. 
And [it cureth] the bones charged with purulent and 
shinny matter. Holland, tr. of Pliny, xxiil., Proeme. 
Our ministers, . . . like a seething pot set to cool, sen- 
sibly exhale and reak out the greatest part of that zeal and 
those gift* which were formerly in them, settling in a 
skinny congealment of ease and sloth at the top. 
Millon, Reformation in Eng., 1. 
2. Tough and firm or dense, but not hard : as, 
the skinny covering of a bird's beak: distin- 
guished from horny. 
What is most remarkable in these [whistling ducks] is 
that the end of their beaks is soft, and of &nkiiiwi, or, more 
properly, cartilaginous substance. 
Cook, Second Voyage, i. 5. 
3. Characterized by skinniness; showing skin 
with little appearance of flesh under it; lean; 
emaciated. 
You seem to understand me. 
By each at once her choppy finger laying 
Upon her skinny lips. Shalt., Macbeth, i. 3. 45. 
I fear thee, ancient mariner, 
I fear thy skinny hand. 
Coleridge, Ancient Mariner, iv. 
4. Miserly; stingy; mean. Compare skin,n., 7. 
[Colloq.] 
As a rule, the whole of the men in a factory would con- 
tribute, and skinny ones were not let off easily. 
Lancet, 1890, II. 246. 
skin-planting (skin 'plan* ting), H. Same as 
skin-grafting. 
skin-sensory (skin'sen'so-ri), a. Of or pertain- 
ing to the epidermis and the principal parts of 
the nervous system : an embryological term 
applied to the outer germ-layer or ectoderm of 
the embryo, whence the above-named tissues 
and organs are derived. 
skin-tight (skin'tit), a. Fitting like the skin; 
as tight as the skin ; pressing close on the skin ; 
glove-tight. 
Pink skin-tight breeches met his high patent-leather 
boots at the knee. T. C. Crawford, English Life, p. 91. 
skintling (skint'ling), adv. [Appar. for *squint- 
ling, < squint + -Km/ 2 .] At an angle. [Colloq.] 
When dry [the bricks] ... are carried in wheel-bar- 
rows and set skinlling, or at angles across each other, to 
allow the heat to pass between them in the down-draught 
kilns. Science, XIII. 335. 
Skin-wool (skin'wul), H. Wool taken from the 
dead skin, as d istinguished from that shorn from 
the living animal. 
skio, skeo (skyo), . [< Norw. skjaa, a shed, 
esp., like fiske-skjaa, a 'fish-shed,' a shed in 
which to dry fish.] A fishermen's shed or hut. 
[Orkney Islands.] 
He would substitute better houses for theskeocs, or sheds, 
built of dry stones, in which the inhabitants cured or 
manufactured their fish. Scott, Pirate, xi. 
skip 1 (skip), .: pret. and pp. skipped or skipt, 
ppr. skipping. [< ME. skippen, skyppeit. Origin 
uncertain : (a) according to Skeat, < Ir. sgiob, 
snatch (found in pp. sgiobtha, snatched away, 
sgiob, a snatch, grasp), = Gael, sgiab, start or 
move suddenly, snatch or pull at anything, = 
W. ysgipio, snatch away; (ft) less prob. con- 
nected with Icel. skopa, run, skoppa, spin like a 
top.] I. intrans. 1. To move suddenly or hasti- 
5674 
ly (in a specified direction); go with a leap or 
spring; bound; dart. 
Whan she saugh that Romayns wan the toun, 
She took hir children alle, and skipte adoun 
Into the fyr, and uhees rather to dye 
Than any Romayn dide hire vileynye. 
Chaucer, Franklin's Tale, 1. 074. 
And he castide awey his cloth * skippide and cam to 
him. ";/<;/>', Mark x. 50. 
O'er the hills o' Qlentanar you'll xkip in an hour. 
Baron of Brackley (Child's Ballads, VI. 191). 
2. To take light, dancing steps; leap about, as 
in sport; jump lightly; caper; frisk; specifi- 
cally, to skip the rope (see below). 
Ne'er trust me, but she danceth ! 
Summer is in her face now, and she skippeth .' 
Fletclier, Wildgoose Chase, ii. 2. 
When going ashore, one attired like a woman lay grovel- 
ling on the sand, whilest the rest skipt about him in a ring. 
Sandys, Travailes, p. 15. 
Can any information be given as to the origin of the cus- 
tom of skipping on Good Friday? ... It was generally 
practised with the long rope, from six to ten, or more, 
grown-up people skipping at one rope. 
.V. and Q., 7th ser., IX. 407. 
3. To make sudden changes with omissions; 
especially, to change about in an arbitrary 
manner: as, to skip about in one's reading. 
Quick sensations skip from vein to vein. 
Pope, Dunciad, ii. 212. 
The vibrant accent skipping here and there, 
Just as it pleased invention or despair. 
Lowell, Biglow Papers, 1st ser., Int. 
4. To pass without notice; make omission, 
as of certain passages in reading or writing: 
often followed by over. 
I don't know why they skipped over Lady Betty, who, if 
there were any question of beauty, is, I think, as well as 
her sister. Walpole, Letters, II. 33. 
5. To take one's self off hurriedly; make 
off: as, he collected the money and skipped. 
[Slang.] 6. In music, to pass or progress from 
any tone to a tone more than one degree dis- 
tant from it. = Syn.land 2. Skip, Trip, Hop, Leaf, Bound, 
Spring, Jump, Vault. Skipping is more than tripping and 
less than leaping, bounding, springing, or jumping; like 
tripping, it implies lightness of spirits or joy. It is about 
equal to hopping, but hupping is rather heavy and gener- 
ally upon one foot or with the feet together, while skip- 
ping uses the feet separately or one after the other. A 
hop is shorter than ajump, and a jump than a leap : as, the 
A"/' of a toad ; the jump of a frog ; the /"'/ of a marsh-frog ; 
a jump from a fence ; a leap from a second-story window. 
Skip, trip, bound, and spring imply elasticity ; buit<l, 
spring, leap, and vault imply vigorous activity. Vault im- 
plies that one has something on which to rest one or both 
hands ; vaulting is either upon or over something, as a 
horee, a fence, and therefore is largely an upward move- 
ment ; the other movements may be chiefly horizontal. 
H. trans. 1. To leap over; cross with a skip 
or bound. 
Tom could move with lordly grace, 
Dick nimbly skipt the gutter. 
Surtft, Tom and Dick. 
2. To pass over without action or notice ; dis- 
regard ; pass by. 
Let not thy sword skip one. Shalt., T. of A., Iv. 3. 110. 
He entailes the Brecon estate on the issue male of his 
eldest son. and, in defailer, to skip the 2d son . . . and to 
come to the third. Aubrey, Lives, William Aubrey. 
I could write about its [Halifax's] free-school system, 
and its many noble charities. ButthereaderalwayssHjw 
such things. C. D. Warner, Baddeck, ii. 
3. To caus.e to skip or bound ; specifically, to 
throw (a missile) so as to cause it to make a 
series of leaps along a surface. 
The doctor could skip them [stones] clear across the 
stream four skips and a landing on the other bank. 
Joseph Kirkland, The McVeys, v. 
To Skip or jump the rope, to jump over a rope slackly 
held and kept in steady revolution over one's head, the 
leaps being taken just in time to allow the rope to pass be- 
tween the feet and the ground. The ends of the rope may 
be held in the hands of the skipper, or by two other per- 
sons so placed as to give it a large radius of revolution. 
It is a common amusement of young girls. 
skip 1 (skip), . [< skip 1 , r.] 1. A leap; a 
spring; a bound. 
And with an active skip remount themselves again, 
Leaving the Roman horse behind them on the plain. 
Drayton, Polyolbion, viii. 195. 
He fetched divers skips, and cried out, "I have found 
it, I have found it ! " Jer. Taylor, Works (ed. 1835), I. 383. 
The things that mount the rostrum with a skip. 
And then skip down again. Cowper, Task, ii. 409. 
2. A passing over or disregarding; an omission; 
specifically, in music, a melodic progression 
from any tone to a tone more than one degree 
distant. Also called salto. 3. That which is 
skipped ; anything which is passed over or dis- 
regarded. [Rare.] 
No man who has written so much is so seldom tiresome. 
In his books there are scarcely any of those passages which, 
in our school days, we used to call skip. Yet he often 
wrote on subjects which are generally considered dull. 
Macaulay, Horace Walpole. 
skipper 
4. In the games of bowls anil curling, the 
player who acts as captain, leader, or director 
of a side or team, and who usually plays the 
last bowl or stone which his team has to play. 
Also called .V/-I/I/KT. 5. A college servant; a 
scout. [Dublin University slang.] 
Conducting himself in all respects . . . as his, the afore- 
said Lorrequer's, own man, skip, valet, or flunkey. 
C. Lever, Harry Lorrequer, xi. 
6. In Htgw-tuMng, the amount or charge of 
syrup in the pans at one time Hop, skip, and 
jump. See hop\. Skip-tooth saw, a saw with every 
alternate tooth removed. 
skip 2 (skip), H. [A var. of skeji, q. v.] lniiiiin/i, 
an iron box for raising ore, differing from the 
kibble in that it runs between guides, while the 
kibble hangs free. In metal-mines the name is 
sometimes given to the bOx when it has wheels 
and runs on rails. 
skip-braint (skip'bran), a. Shuttle-wilted ; 
flighty; fickle. [Rare.] 
This skipp-braiiie Kancie moves these easie movers 
To loue what ere hath but a glimpse of good. 
IJaeia, Miciocosmos, p. 30. (Davies.) 
Skipetar (skip'e-tar), . [Albanian Skipetar, 
lit. mountaineer, < skipe, a mountain.] 1. An 
Albanian or Amaut. See Albanian. 2. The 
language of the Albanians: same as Albanian. 
skip-hegrie (skip'heg"ri), . Same as heyrir. 
skipjack (skip'jak), . [< *Av>i + jack 1 .'] 1. 
A shallow, impertinent fellow; an insignifi- 
cant fop ; a puppy. 
These villains, that can never leave grinning ! ... to 
see how this skip-jack looks at me ! 
Sir /'. Sidney, Arcadia, iii. 
What, know'st thou, skipjack, whom thou villain call'st? 
Greene, Alphonsus, i. 
2f. Formerly, a youth who rode horses up and 
down, showing them off with a view to sale. 
The boyes, striplings, AT., that have the riding of the 
jades up and downe are called skip-jacks. 
Dekker, Lanthorne and Candle Light, x. (Encijc. Diet.) 
3. The merrythought of a fowl made into a 
little toy by a twisted thread and a small piece 
of Stick, (nalliwell.) A similar skipjack is oftener 
made of the breastbone of a goose or duck, across the 
costal processes of which is twisted a piece of twine with 
a little stick, the latter being stuck at the other end with 
a bit of shoemaker's wax. As the adhesion of the stick to 
the wax suddenly gives way, under the continued tension 
of the twisted string, the toy skips into the air, or turns a 
somersault. Also called jumpina-jack. 
4. Intcftt/i.,one of several different fishes which 
dart through and sometimes skip out of the 
water, (a) The blueflsh, Pomatomus saltatrix. See cut 
under bluefah. (b) The herring, or Ohio shad, Clupea chry- 
sochloris, of little economical value, related to the alewife. 
(c) The saurel, Trachurus sattrus: same as#carfi, 2. (d) The 
hairtail, a trichiuroid flsh, Trichiurus lepturus. [Indian 
river, Florida.] (e) The jurel, buffalo-jack, or jack-fish, a 
carangoid, Caranx pisquetos. [Florida.) (/) The runner, 
a carangoid flsh, Kleijatis pinnulatus. [Key West.] (g) 
A scombroid fish, Sarda chilensis, the bonito. See cut un- 
der bonito. [California.] (A) The butterflsh. a stromateoid 
fish, Stromfiteus triacanthus. see cut under butter-fish. 
[Cape Cod, Massachusetts.] (i) The brook-silversides, Labi - 
dfsthes sicculus, a graceful little flsh of the family Athcri- 
Skipjack {Labidesthes sicciilus), about natural size. 
nidfe, found in ponds and brooks of the Mississippi water- 
shed. It is 3J inches long, translucent olive-green, the 
back dotted with black, the sides with a very distinct sil- 
very band bounded above by a black line. 
5. In entom., a click-beetle or snapping-beetle ; 
an elater; any member of the Elaleridie. See 
cut under click-beetle. 6. A form of boat used 
on the Florida coast, built very flat, with little 
or no sheer, and with chubby bows. J. A. Hen- 
sliall. 
skip-kennelt (skip'ken'el), . [< skip 1 , v., + 
obj. kenneft.'] One who has to ]ump the gut- 
ters : a contemptuous name for a lackey or foot- 
boy. 
Every scullion and skipketmel had liberty to tell his 
master his own. Amhitrst, Terra? Filius, No. Z. 
You have no professed enemy except the rabble, and my 
lady's waiting-woman, who are sometimes apt to call you 
skip-kennel. Sirtft, Advice to Servants (Footman). 
skip-mackerel (skip'mak"e-rel), . The blue- 
fish, Pomatomus naltutrix. 
skipper 1 (skip'er), H. [< ME. skippere, ski/p- 
pare ; < skip 1 + -er 1 .] 1. One who or tliat 
which skips or jumps; a leaper; a dancer. 
Prompt. Pan\, p. 458. 2f. A locust. 
This wind hem brogte the skipperes, 
He deden on gres [grass] and coren [corn] deres [harm]. 
Genesis and Exodus (E. E. T. S.), 1. 3087. 
3t. A trifling, thoughtless person ; a skipjack. 
