skinny

Etymology

From Middle English skinny (“resembling skin”), equivalent to skin + -y. The meaning associated with lack of fat or muscle possibly derives from the phrase skin and bones; the meaning associated with nudity refers to the exposed skin.

adj

1. (informal) thin, generally in a negative sense (as opposed to slim, which is thin in a positive sense).
   Her recent weight loss has made her look rather skinny than slender
2. (informal, of food or beverages) Having reduced fat or calories.
   ...into the skinny chocolate milk? 1974, National Fruit & Syrup Manufacturers Assn, Dairy & ice cream field, Volume 157, Issues 1-6 (cooking), page 45
   Also bring me three quarts of ‘skinny’ milk. What the matter, Mr. Kuziavka, have you just fallen from the moon?! Don't you know about ‘skinny’ milk? It's milk, from which the fat has been removed and... 1982, Mykola Ponedilok, Funny tears: short stories (history), page 186
   “All right,” said Katz, who, waiting on his skinny milk latte, turned to snap his fingers at the only waiter in the room. 2008, Sydney Bauer, Undertow (fiction), page 387
   People always order a "skinny" margarita without knowing exactly what that means for the ingredients. Skinny means the cocktail has a natural sweetener like lime juice or agave nectar, and none of that slushy, syrupy sweet-and-sour mix. 2019, Fancy AF Cocktails
3. Naked; nude (chiefly used in the phrase skinny dipping).
   Let's take our clothes oft" and go swimming skinny. 1972, Robert Woodruff Anderson, Solitaire: Double solitaire, page 53
   We never swam skinny in the river like the hippy kids on the farm across the railway tracks. 2000, Linda Rogers, Say my name: the memoirs of Charlie Louie, page 25
   When I went in again, the desirable alien was in bed with eyelids closed …, obviously sleeping skinny, to employ her own term for it. 1994, Geoffrey Atheling Wagner, A singular passion: a novel, page 200
   with stimulative sybaritic aids ranging from a mountain sunset to a dip — skinny or otherwise — in a heated pool 2007, Weston P. Hatfield, The Governor's Choice, page 20
   She used to swim "skinny" in Sprague's cove in broad daylight, leaving her bathing dress on the float. 2008, Kitty Crockett Robertson, Measuring Time - By an Hourglass, page 220
4. (of clothing) tight-fitting
   skinny jeans
5. (golf) Synonym of thin (“type of shot where the ball is struck by the bottom part of the club head”)

noun

1. (colloquial) The details or facts; especially, those obtained by gossip or rumor.
   She called to get the skinny on the latest goings-on in the club.
2. A state of nakedness; nudity.
   Again, she appears nude whilst dipping in the skinny, but this time, instead of being eaten by a shark or a bear, she encounters a Japanese submarine 2004, Mr. Skin, Mr. Skin's Skincyclopedia, page 34
   "Nobody would bother peeking these days," she said ruefully, "in bathing suits or in the skinny." 2009, Susan Wittig Albert, Wormwood, page 90
3. (informal) A low-fat serving of coffee.
4. (nonstandard) A skinny being.
   "Either a skinny had judged (correctly) that it was worth one of their buildings to try for one of us, or one of my own mates was getting mighty careless with fireworks" .."A congregation in church — a skinny flophouse — maybe even their defense headquarters. All I knew was that it was a very big room filled with more skinnies than I wanted to see in my whole life." 1959, Robert Heinlein, Starship Troopers, page 10

verb

1. (transitive) To reduce or cut down.
   Like an accordion at a country wedding producing sweet-and-sour notes, some importers are expanding their U.S. retail automotive operations while others are skinnying down. 1982, Ward's Auto World, volume 18, numbers 1-6, page 65
   By the end of the chapter, we will have (hopefully) skinnied the list of contenders further (perhaps there will be none left). 1996, Kevin Dowd, Getting Connected: The Internet at 56K and Up, page 25
   Said one judge: "What is [Chapter 22] other than the process of skinnying the company down? Are there some inefficiencies in that? If so, they can be absorbed by the economy and the country." 2001, Bankruptcy Court Decisions (volume 38, page A-7)