Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(drugs) a hand-rolled marijuana cigarette; the number varies as to the amount of rolling papersused.

1998		K. Sampson Awaydays 33: He sparks up a one-skinner and ushers me to my feet.
2002		(con. 1970s) Fabian & Byrne Out of Time (ms.) 91: Crim rolled up briskly, took a drag and passed me a lethal one-skinner.
2009		T. Black Gutted 186: One of them had a five-skinner in his hand [and] toked away.

(UK und.) a purse snatcher.

1840

Flash Mirror 4: Fat Jack’s [...] where all path shavers are allowed to doss for a duce, gaff men for thrums, skin sneakers for a flag.

1. (orig. US black) to perform the ritual palm slapping that forms a greeting between blacks or a black and a knowledgeable white; thus the greeting give/slip/flip me some skin.

1939		Herbert & Spencer Jitterbug Jamboree Song Book 33: slip me some skin: congratulate me.
1941		Lionel Hampton & His Sextet [song title] Give Me Some Skin.
1944		Cab Calloway New Hepsters Dict. in Calloway (1976) 255: gimme some skin (v.): shake hands.
1944		‘Jiver’s Bible’ in D. Burley Orig. Hbk of Harlem Jive.
1947		B. Schulberg Harder They Fall (1971) 176: Georgie! [...] Where you been, gate? Gimme some skin, man.
1954		Hepster’s Dict. 4: Flip me some skin – Let’s shake hands.
1954		Wild One [film script] Now gimme some skin, and ooze it out.
1965		(con. 1940s) Malcolm X Autobiog. (1968) 126: My homeboy! Man, gimme some skin! I’m from Lansing! […].
1965		W. Dick Bunch of Ratbags 257: Give me some skin, daddy-o.
1966		(con. 1958) R. Farina Been Down So Long (1972) 96: Everybody gave some skin all round.
1968		‘Hy Lit’ Hy Lit’s Unbelievable Dict. of Hip Words 18: give me five – Offering or asking someone for a handshake; give me some skin.
1970		(con. 1950s) H. Junker ‘The Fifties’ in Eisen Age of Rock 2 (1970) 100: Beat/Jazz contributed: daddy-o, pad, bread, gig, slip me some skin.
1971		H.E. Roberts Third Ear n.p.: give me some skin a greeting requesting a handshake in which the palm is held flat while the greeter slides his hand along the open palm to the end of the fingers.
1971		R. Woodley Dealer 168: He [...] hung up and went cheerfully over to slap Slick’s palms. ‘Hey, you know who that was? You know who? Yeah. Comin off with an eighth tonight. Hey, an eighth, man.’ And they skinned again.
1972		B.G. Cooke ‘Nonverbal communication among Afro-Americans’, in Kochman Rappin’ and Stylin’ Out 33: The gestural expressions of ‘giving skin’ and ‘getting skin’ are very common in the black community.
1983		R. Klein Jailhouse Jargon and Street Sl. [unpub. ms.].
1992		D. Burke Street Talk 2 37: Gimme s’m skin! How ya living?
1994		Montgomery Advertiser (AL) 6 Mar. 32/1: It looks like he spends all of his time slapping skin [...] referring to those familiar ‘high fives’.
1997		(con. 1970s) G. Pelecanos King Suckerman (1998) 26: The skins [...] got in a loose circle, gave each other skin, caught their breath.
1998		(con. 1986) G. Pelecanos Sweet Forever 19: Karras and Clay gave each other skin.
2000		G. Pelecanos Shame the Devil 150: Wilson laughed, reached across the round-top and gave Karras finger-skin.
2010		A. Steinberg Running the Books 367: He gave me some skin.

2. in fig. use of sense 1, to grant someone respect, admiration.

1978

R. Charles Brother Ray 70: I got to give him some skin for having high standards, even though he cut me to the bone.

to have something to lose; to have a personal committment to a situation.

1969		L. Schecter Jocks 71: ‘If you spend that much money,’ says [ABC television executive Roone] Arledge [...] ‘you’re selling to get your skin back’.
2011		E. Beetner ‘Zed’s Dead, Baby’ in Pulp Ink [ebook] I only get sent out on overdue bills north of ten grand so the people running have some skin in the game, as they say.
2015		J. Stahl OG Dad 115: Once I had some skin in the game — in the form of a child for whose well-being I would eat my own face — all bets were off.
2019		S.M. Jones Lives Laid Away [ebook] ‘I wouldn’t blame you if you pulled the chute on this one, Snow [...] you got no skin in the game’.
2022		A. Parks May God Forgive 1250: ‘Besides he’s got skin in the game. Seeing Johnny Smart go down would suit him just fine’.
2023		S. Hart Once Upon a Prime 242: I don’t buy this ‘young man’s game’ business [...] Admittedly, I have skin in the game, being neither young nor a man, but even so .

(US) to shake hands with.

1946

Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 147: I shot over to knock him some skin.

1. (drugs) to roll a cannabis-filled cigarette.

1989		M. Dibdin Tryst 28: An assortment of graffiti, including ‘Take 2 you shit crew’, ‘Skin one up’.
1998		I. Welsh Filth 168: Skinning up a large reefer of skunk.
2005		B. Hare Urban Grimshaw 60: ‘Skin up, Chop,’ she ordered [...] I skinned up.
2011		Independent on Sun. Books 13 Mar. 69/1: He skinned up a jay.
2015		L. McInerney Glorious Heresies 64: [S]ometimes she invited him to come in and skin up with her.

2. in fig. use, to involve oneself with.

1998

Guardian Guide 25–31 26 July n.p.: Brad Pitt may skin up with Newline to make the pothead caper Smuggler’s Moon.

3. (W.I.) to be on friendly terms [the proximity of human skin].

1995		Francis-Jackson Official Dancehall Dict. 48: Skin-up to be on friendly terms: u. me no skin- up wid’ im#.
1997		‘Q’ Deadmeat 298: E is bout loyalty an me is bout moni, yu get me? Ah don’t skin up bout dat.

4. see also SE phrs. under skin v.¹

1. to exchange a greeting by slapping each other’s hands.

1967		P. Thomas Down These Mean Streets (1970) 16: I slapped skin with them, playing it cool all the way. Man, that was the way to be.
1979		E. Torres After Hours 55: We slapped skin about here.
2000		C. Cook Robbers (2001) 125: Two black men stood [...] casting rods. They laughed and slapped skin.

2. (also slap, slap on) to have sexual intercourse.

1995		Eble Campus Sl. Apr. 9: slap skins – have sex.
2000		Ebonics Primer at www.dolemite.com 🌐 slap Definition: to have sexual intercourse. Example: Last night I slapped that ass numerous times.
2003		A.N. LeBlanc Random Family 315: Comments like When I’m gonna get that? and When can I slap on that?

see separate entry.

1. a very thin person; thus used as insult, see cite 1867.

1835		Tasmanian (Hobart, Tas.) 11 Sept. 5/2: Virgin pure as driven snow—lovely languishes—skin and grief:— ‘Are there no hopes?’.
1866		Englishwoman’s Mag. q. in Brisbane Courier 1 Aug. 4/3: And perhaps I’d have cut it sooner, ere i came here all skin and grief.
1867		Illus. Berwick Jrnl 22 Feb. 3/3: Margaret Hamilton [said] she heard him calling names to Mrs Cowan. She heard Andrew Robson ask some boys to call out ‘skin and grief’.
1871		Sthn Argus (Port Elliot, SA) 5 May 2/5: ‘I was once so big’ (extending his arms around the space in front of him where his stomach ought to have been, to the respectable size of the middle of an hogshead). ‘Now, alas! I am gone to skin and grief, like the barber's cat’.
1878		Brooklyn Dly Eagle (NY) 5 May 2/4: ‘The Cardinal is all skin and grief [...] with a nose as thin as a paper knife’.
1882		Australasian (Melbourne) 9 Dec. 2/3: It is the ghost of a sea-horse [...] and, even as a ghost, it seems in the very last stage of emaciation, literally all skin and grief.
1891		East Anglian Times 12 Dec. 7/3: A little judicious stuffing makes a world of difference [...] if you are only skin and grief.
1895		Traralgon Record (Vic.) 11 Jan. 4/5: [advert] The Slender Man. There was a man of slender frame, / Who trembled like a leaf, / And wasted till he’d nothing left, / But skin and bones and grief.
1901		Hillston Spectator (NSW)30 Mar. 16/3: I’m [...] as right as you could expect a man to be who’s not had a meal for a month. I’m all skin and grief, teeth and hair.
1902		H. Baumann Londinismen (2nd edn).
1906		E. Pugh Spoilers 69: ’Urry out, ole Skin-an’-grief.
1916		Cumberland Argus (Parramatta, NSW) 1 Mar. 3/4: If he were to fill all expectations he might wear himself to skin and grief.
1918		Eve. Dispatch (London) 10 Dec. 4/3: [advert] If Chairman didn’t bring relief / He’d waste away to skin and grief. 5½d. for 10.
1925		Sun. Times (Sydney) 24 May 4/4: ‘SKIN AND GRIEF.’ Observe a girl who smokes excessively, and you will notice that she also looks under-nourished, in some cases all skin-and-grief, with staring eyes and a yellowish skin.
1933		Central Qyeensland Herald (Rockhampton, Qld) 17 Aug. 12/3: He was just skin and grief combined with a sore back and a bung eye.
1953		J. Franklyn Cockney 265: Six foot o’ skin an’ grief.
1957		Aberdeen Eve. Exp. 27 July 3/4: I was such a bit of skin and grief that none of the boys ever cast me an eye.

2. in fig. use of sense 1.

1856

Sydney Morn. Herald 17 June 4/2: We hope that no attempt will be scouted to represent us as an ‘oppressed and down-trodden people.’ We have no need at present for a moody skin-and-grief Ministry.

1. see sense 2b

2. (US black) a drum.

1941

‘Digg Mee’ ‘Observation Post’ in N.Y. Age 15 Mar. 9/6: [T]he inimitable Ray [...] on the drums...What rhythm he can drag, from that old skin bag.

a drummer.

1937		B. Goodman This Thing Called Swing 9: skin-beater: drummer.
1942		Pittsburgh Courier (PA) 25 July 21/1: Count Basie’s ace skin beater and [...] Duke Ellington’s soulful sax-man.
1947		St Louis Post-Dispatch (MO) 1 Aug. 37/2: [headline] Crack 10-Year-Old Skin-Beater. Joey Preston is Red-Hot Drummer.

(N.Z.) an uncircumcised male.

1987

R. Norgrove Shoestring Sailors 138: ‘Of course skinboys pick it up quicker than those who have been ringbarked.’ ‘Ringbarked?’ ‘Circumcised.’ [DNZE].

the vagina.

1653		Urquhart (trans.) Gargantua and Pantagruel (1927) I Bk I 175: Let her be as ugly as Prosepina, she will once, by the Lord G— , be overturned, and get her skin-coat shaken.
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

(Aus. prison) to inject narcotics.

1990

Tupper & Wortley Aus. Prison Sl. Gloss. 🌐 Skin dive. To inject narcotics.

1. a male homosexual [his supposed appetite for fellatio; Trimble extends use to practitioners of heterosexual oral intercourse].

1966		Trimble 5000 Adult Sex Words and Phrases.
1972		B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular.

2. a fellatrix.

1969

Current Sl. III:3 10: Skin diver, n. A female heterosexual with oral tendencies.

see separate entry.

see under frisk n.¹

see separate entry.

(US Und.) a rape.

1950

Goldin et al. DAUL 196/1: Skin-heist. (P) A rape or criminal assault. ‘This joint (prison) is crumbed up (full) with fleas (low fellows), squares (victims of economic depression) and them dudes (fellows) in for skin-heists.’.

(US Und.) selling fake fur.

1937

‘Boxcar Bertha’ Sister of the Road (1975) 307: skin hustling — selling fake fur.

(US Black) a drummer.

1943

Pittsburgh Courier (PA) 22 May 21/1: Jo Jones, who is the skin man with Count Basie.

a military recruiting officer.

1781

J. Burgoyne Lord of Manor III ii: I am a manufacturer of honour and glory—vulgarly call’d a recruiting dealer—or more vulgarly still, a skin-merchant.

(W.I.) sexual abandonment.

1995

Francis-Jackson Official Dancehall Dict. 48: Skin-out [...] 2. sexual abandonment.

see separate entries.

1. (US gay) a male homosexual who views his partners as no more than sex objects, a gay sexist.

1972

B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular.

2. one who prefers uncircumcised penises.

2003

K. Cage Gayle 94/2: skin queen n. man who likes uncircumcised penises [American Gayspeak].

(Aus.) a bathing costume.

1914

Truth (Melbourne) 31 Jan. 6/1: [I] got into my skin-rags for a plunge.

(UK juv.) a totally inadequate, inept person.

2001

OnLine Dict. of Playground Sl. 🌐 skin roll n. Insult. A word for a total tosser. Or as we liked to call them; ‘A walking length’. Generally used when someone has performed an act of incredible ineptitude.

(N.Z. prison) a pison-made tattoo machine.

2001

D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 168/1: skin scratcher n. a tattoo machine.

(US prison) a body search.

1967

M. Braly On the Yard (2002) 33: Throw your smokes away. Now come up here one at a time for a skin shake.

see shoot skin

see shot n.¹ (6b)

(US) a tympani player.

1938

Eve. Sun (Baltimore, MD) 19 Dec. 21/4: Skin tickler: tympani player.

see separate entries.

(US) a bald head.

1990

S. Morgan Homeboy 247: With the skintop you look like a double Y chromosome serial killer.

(N.Z. prison) tattoos.

2001

D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 168/1: skinwork (also skinart) n. tattoos.

(US Und.) a shoplifter, usu. of furs.

1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 196/1: Skin-worker. A loft-man who specializes in stealing furs.
1989		J. Morton Lowspeak.

to get drunk.

1840

Bury & Norwich Post 5 Feb. 2/3: To fill our skins is surely to take good care of ourselves. Then drink, boys, drink!

(US) to have sexual intercourse.

1933

in Randolph & Legman Ozark Folksongs and Folklore (1992) I 108: I went upstairs to get a little skin, / The hole growed up, an’ I couldn’t get it in. [...] I went upstairs to get a little skin, / Fell in a piss-pot up to my chin.

(US black) to have sexual intercourse.

1995		S. Moore In The Cut 63: I have many more words for the dictionary [...] skins, sex from a female (as in ‘getting some skins from the pretties’).
2000		Ebonics Primer at www.dolemite.com 🌐 skins Definition: to get laid. Example: I be getting skins from dat biotch [sic] Yolanda.
2007		B. Coleman Check the Technique 98: ‘Me and Jamar didn’t talk about skins, but we damn sure got skins!’.

to have sexual intercourse [note Papua New Guinea Tok Pisin paitim bun, to have sex, lit. ‘hit bones’].

1995		L. Stavsky et al. A2Z 49/1: hitting the skins – v. engaging in sexual intercourse.
2000		hipslang.com 🌐 hit them skins: (v.) got with a girl ex. i just hit them skins last night.

bad-tempered, ‘out of sorts’.

c.1786		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue ms. additions n.p.: In a Bad Skin, out of Temper, in an ill humour.
1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (2nd, 3rd edn) n.p.: In a bad skin; out of temper, in an ill humour. Thin-skinned: touchy, peevish.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1929		(con. 1916) F. Manning Her Privates We (1986) 84: As you put it, I have been in a bad skin ever since we left Sandpits.

good-humoured, cheerful.

1762		Bridges Homer Travestie (1764) I 75: In a whole skin thou lov’st to be.
1821		Egan Life in London (1869) 270: Logic found his companions in a ‘whole skin‘ on paying a visit to Corinthian House the next morning.
1929		(con. 1916) F. Manning Her Privates We (1986) 23: Captain Malet’s not in a very good skin today.

a non-committal answer when asked where someone is.

1738

Swift Polite Conversation 22: col.: Pray, Miss, where is your old Acquaintance, Mrs. Wayward ?. miss.: Why, where should she be? If you must needs know; she’s in her Skin.

(W.I.) harassing, nagging.

1996

Allsopp Dict. Carib. Eng. Usage.

(orig. US) no problem, no worries; of no importance.

1934		W.R. Burnett Goodbye to the Past 237: Hen hesitated and rubbed his chin reflectively. ‘You must’ve had bad news.’ ‘Well, it’s no skin off your backside, is it?’.
1941		B. Schulberg What Makes Sammy Run? (1992) 191: If you haven’t learned [...] that it’s every man for himself, it’s no skin off my ass.
1952		(con. 1920s) ‘Harry Grey’ Hoods (1953) 234: So he’ll kill the Fairy. That’s no skin off your ass.
1957		‘Weldon Hill’ Onionhead (1958) 148: ‘It’s no skin off your arse if I smooch Red’s wife’.
1960		(con. WWII) R. Leckie Marines! 29: It was no skin off his backside.
1961		‘M.B. Longman’ Power of Black (1962) 139: It’s no skin off my yella ass.
1963		in T.I. Rubin Sweet Daddy 12: No skin off my tail. [Ibid.] 14: No skin off my back.
1973		E. Bunker No Beast So Fierce 26: I don’t care if you run. It’s no skin off my ass.
1980		Green Bay Press Gaz. (WI) 26 Sept. 22/4: ‘It’s no skin off my tail’ [...] meaning it’s no concern of mine, goes back to our western frontier of the 19th century.
2001		(con. 1964–8) J. Ellroy Cold Six Thousand 52: Pete shrugged. ‘Jack’s no skin off my ass either way.’.

(orig. US) of no importance.

1959		(con. WWII) B. Cochrell Barren Beaches of Hell 193: It’s no skin off your testicles,’ Willy said.
1993		M. Dibdin Dying of the Light 87: Still, that was no skin off his dick, was it?
2002		J. McDaniel Counterparts 14: No skin off my balls if it does fall. Who the fuck would give a shit anyway?
2024		C. Stella Joey Piss Pot 296: ‘If you don’t want to talk, so be it. No skin off my balls’.

a phr. implying one’s contemptuous lack of interest; ‘I don’t care’, ‘it doesn’t bother me’.

1889		News-Courant (Cottonwood Falls, KS) 12 Sept. 2/2: ‘Ef ’t ain’t no skin off’n yo’r elbow, pard’.
1906		Out West Mar. 246: The ‘Statehood fight’ concerns the territories only, and is ‘no skin off the knuckles’ of California [DA].
1913		H.A. Franck Zone Policeman 88 134: Now we have a private inside hunch that the three already here have come up particularly and specifically to prepare for the funeral of the three who are arriving. Which is no hair off our brows.
1914		M. Glass Abe And Mawruss 107: Of course, Max [...] it ain’t no skin off my nose, y’understand.
1920		S. Lewis Main Street (1921) 312: Go to it. No skin off my ear, Nat.
1925		G.H. Mullin Adventures of a Scholar Tramp 98: Draw in yere teeth, ye meddlesome old blister [...] If this man knocks at my door, that ain’t no skin off your elbow.
1928		D. Lawley Hustling Hobo 234: It’s no skin off our backs if there ain’t no coal.
1933		(con. 1850s) R. Bradford Kingdom Coming 71: Efn you tells de moster somethin’ de moster know already, hit ain’t no harm done and no skin offn yo’ sweet back.
1935		(con. 1920s) J.T. Farrell Judgement Day in Studs Lonigan (1936) 561: He had a lot of crust shooting his bazoo off when it wasn’t any skin off his teeth. [Ibid.] 657: What he doesn’t know will be no skin off his ears.
1939		R. Chandler Big Sleep 111: If Geiger was running indecent literature, that’s no skin off my nose.
1941		Times (Munster, IN) 4 Nov. 8/7: Seeing as i don’t pay taxes [...] it’s no skin off my teeth.
1944		R.L. Bellem ‘Focus on Death’ Hollywood Detective Jan. 🌐 It was no skin off my elbow.
1944		Howard Fast Freedom Road 229: I know that. It’s no skin off your back [DA].
1948		H. McCoy Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye in Four Novels (1983) 154: Now look here, Doc [...] This is no skin off your nose.
1949		N. Algren Man with the Golden Arm 116: It wasn’t any skin off his hide [...] the sucker figured.
1953		R. Chandler Long Good-Bye 17: If the guy wanted to be somebody’s woolly bear, it was no skin off my teeth.
1953		L. Durst Jives of Dr. Hepcat (1989) 10: It’s no use for us to cuff and be ruff, fuss and be tuff, because it’s no skin off of our smellers to be good fellers. Nobody’s ready for Freddy, so fall in line and get on time.
1953		F. Paley Rumble on the Docks (1955) 135: Say [...] it ain’t no skin off your back if we hang on to the little box.
1953		R. Mais Hills were Joyful Together (1966) 56: It’s nothing [...] Some skin off my elbow, ’bout all.
1955		B. Schulberg On the Waterfront (1964) 32: It was no skin off Terry if Joey wanted to louse himself up.
1958		(con. 1940s) B. Behan Borstal Boy 300: That’s his business and no skin off your nose or mine.
1963		in T.I. Rubin Sweet Daddy 12: No skin off my tail. [Ibid.] 14: No skin off my back.
1964		P. Highsmith Two Faces of January (1988) 59: His coolness was almost like contempt, Chester felt. No skin off his nose what had happened, of course, no skin at all.
1971		B. Malamud Tenants (1972) 31: Make it like eight or around that if it’s no skin off you.
1971		Wodehouse Much Obliged, Jeeves 32: Well, it was no skin off my nose.
1975		D. Nobbs Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin (1976) 282: It’s no skin off my shonk who you marry.
1979		G. Swarthout Skeletons 13: So what? It’s no skin off mine.
1980		M. Bail Homesickness (1999) 299: They’ve got their own newspapers. No skin off your nose!
1982		Minneapolis Star (MN) 26 Mar. 26/4: ‘All you can do is tell ’em [...] if they don’t want to listen, it ain’t no skin off my teeth’.
1995		M. Simpson ‘Prufrock Scoused’ Catching Up with Hist. 23: Makes no odds. No skin off my nose.
2000		S. Maloney Big Ask 202: I’ll see that Stuhl gets your message, if that’s what you want. [...] No skin off my nose.
2002		Baltimore Sun (MD) 30 June B1/2: ‘I got something and I don’t need it. If you need it, hey, it ain’t no skin off my back’.
2004		P. Howard Teenage Dirtbag Years 13: Her loss. It’s no skin off my nose.
2010		K. Richards Life 202: I decided it was no skin off my nose.
2016		Hartford Courtant (CT) 6 Jan. A11/4: Let them tay there until they [...] want to go home. No skin off my teeth.
2017		Star Trib. (Minneapolis, MN) 8 Oct. E16/1: ‘I you have to hit the brakes so hard [...] a window breaks, it’s no skin off my nose’.
2021		H. Joyce Trans 284: As more gay people came out [...] straight people gradually realized [...] that their orientation was no skin off anyone else’s nose.

(Aus./N.Z.) desperate for a drink of alcohol.

1955		H.G. Lamond Towser the Sheep Dog 48: In the Ianguage of the bush, ‘Jack’s skin was crackin’’. He craved a drunken spree.
1963		S. Mussen Beating about Bush 63: ‘His skin’s fair cracking.’ ‘Fair cracking?’ I asked. ‘He can’t wait to start a drinking spree,’ translated Tim.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. 190: skin is cracking, my Dry from lack of booze and feeling an intense desire to remedy this deficiency. 1930s.

(US Und.) a phr. that implies absolute honesty.

1992		Bentley & Corbett Prison Sl. 42: When one gang member tells another something, he may be asked if he is telling the truth. His reply of verification would be — on my skin. This is the most significant word of honor a person can give [...] On my skin is simply a way of assuring someone something is true. It is never used in jest.
2002		J. Lerner You Got Nothing Coming 39: Nah, dawg, straight-up business, on my skin, bo! I was a short-order cook.

stealing furs.

1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 196/1: Skin, the. The fur-stealing racket. [...] Skin, on the. Engaged in, or by means of, any of the various forms of the fur-stealing racket.

(Aus.) to become hysterical with rage.

1953

T.A.G. Hungerford Riverslake 173: Stone the crows, I thought she’d shed her blasted skin!

(drugs) to inject narcotics into the skin rather than into a vein; thus skin-shooting n., injecting in this way; skin-shooter n., one who injects in this way.

1937		B. Dai Opium Addiction in Chicago 203: Skin-shooters. Addicts who inject drugs subcutaneously. This is called going in the skin.
1938		D. Maurer ‘Lang. of the Und. Narcotic Addict’ Pt 2 in Lang. Und. (1981) 103/1: To go in the skin. To indulge in skin-shooting as contrasted to veinshooting.
1959		J.E. Schmidt Narcotics Lingo and Lore 69: Go in the skin – To inject an addiction narcotic hypodermically rather than intravenously.
1968		‘Sl. of Watts’ in Current Sl. III:2 42: shoot skin, v. To make a faulty injection of heroin and miss the vein.
1994		C. Major Juba to Jive 420: shoot skin to inject heroin or some other drug into a muscle.

(W.I.) a phr. meaning one is obsessed with someone at first sight and wants to possess them immediately.

1996

Allsopp Dict. Carib. Eng. Usage.

(orig. naut.) a popular toast; often ext. as here’s (to) the skin off your nose!

1914		R. Tressell Ragged Trousered Philanthropists (1955) 197: Well, ’ere’s the skin orf yer nose, said Crass, [...] taking a long pull at the pint glass.
1925		(con. WWI) Fraser & Gibbons Soldier and Sailor Words 260: Skin Off Your Nose! Here’s To The: Your good health!
1932		(con. WWI) L. Mann Flesh in Armour 32: ‘Here’s luck, Uncle!’ cried Bill [...] ‘The skin off your nose, Mr Carter!’ proposed Charl.
1936		Wodehouse ‘Tried in the Furnace’ in Young Men in Spats 42: ‘Well, skin off your nose,’ said Pongo. ‘Fluff in your latchkey,’ said Barmy. He drained his glass.
1942		A.L. Haskell Waltzing Matilda 38: ‘’Ere’s ’ow!’ ‘Skin-orf-yer-nose!’.
1945		G. Fairlie Capt. Bulldog Drummond 23: ‘Good health, Hugh.’ [...] ‘Skin off your nose, old top!’.
1947		H.C. Bosman Jacaranda in the Night (1981) I 304: Hans Korf placed more drinks before them. ‘Here’s to the skin off your nose.’.
1949		Wodehouse Mating Season 201: Skin off your nose, Jeeves.
1960		N. Hilliard Maori Girl 177: ‘Well, skin off your nose!’ He drained his glass.