skinned

Everyday

1. Skinned is the past of «to skin»: to take the skin off an animal or fruit. tree →
2. If you have skinned your knee, you have scraped some skin off it. tree →
3. As part of a word, -skinned describes the kind of skin something has: thick-skinned, dark-skinned, smooth-skinned. tree →
4. Thick-skinned means not easily upset by criticism; thin-skinned means easily upset. tree →

In the lessons

Everyday life and safety: a skinned knee from falling off a bike needs washing and a plaster. Cooking: skinned chicken or skinned tomatoes. Feelings: «You need to be thick-skinned to be a referee». Phrases: «keep your eyes skinned» (watch very carefully), «more than one way to skin a cat» (more than one way to do something).

Examples

• I skinned my knee on the gravel. tree →
• The cook skinned the potatoes. tree →
• Keep your eyes skinned for the bus. tree →
• She is thick-skinned and laughs off teasing. tree →
• He is thin-skinned and gets upset easily. tree →
• The recipe uses skinned tomatoes. tree →
• The hunter skinned the rabbit for its fur. tree →
• Bring up the great bull buffaloes, the blue-skinned herd bulls with the angry eyes. tree →

Note

Spelling: skin doubles the n: skinned, skinning. Be careful with words for people's skin colour: describe kindly and only when it matters. «There's more than one way to skin a cat» is an old saying and does not mean hurting cats.