Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Having very little bodily flesh or fat, often unattractively so; very thin. synonym: lean.
  • adjective Having little width; narrow.
  • adjective Of, relating to, or resembling skin.
  • noun Inside information; the real facts.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Consisting of or having the nature of skin; resembling skin or film; cutaneous; membranous.
  • Tough and firm or dense, but not hard: as, the skinny covering of a bird's beak: distinguished from horny.
  • Characterized by skinniness; showing skin with little appearance of flesh under it; lean; emaciated.
  • Miserly; stingy; mean.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Consisting, or chiefly consisting, of skin; wanting flesh.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective informal Having little flesh and fat; slim; slender; narrow; thin, generally beyond what looks beautiful.
  • adjective informal Low-fat.
  • adjective Naked; nude (chiefly used in the phrase skinny dipping).
  • noun colloquial The details or facts; especially, those obtained by gossip or rumor.
  • noun A state of nakedness; nudity.
  • noun A skinny being

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective fitting snugly
  • adjective being very thin
  • adjective of or relating to or resembling skin
  • adjective giving or spending with reluctance
  • noun confidential information about a topic or person

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Skin +‎ -y, meaning associated with lack of fat or muscle possibly derived from the phrase skin and bones, meaning associated with nudity derived from exposing skin.

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Examples

Comments

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  • in mountain biking, it's a very narrow and elevated bridge which is technically difficult to ride on.

    January 12, 2013

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  • Supposedly used by US service personnel in Somali to refer to members of enemy militia.

    January 22, 2014