Dictionary

cleanskin en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (Australia) audio
• (Australia) audio
• /ˈkliːnskɪn/

Etymology

From clean + skin.

Meanings

1. (Australia) An unbranded animal.
   • For here was an unoccupied area where cleanskins had made their home. 1937, Ion L. Idriess, Over the Range, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, published 1947, page 272:
   • The bullocks would be in the lead and you'd whip in and let the bullocks go to hell, but hang to your cleanskins as much as you could. 1995, Darrell Lewis, Charles Schultz, Beyond the Big Run, page 96:
   • I started off lassoing the cleanskins, dragging them up bellowing to the bronco panel where they were quickly leg-roped, thrown and branded. 1988, Tom Cole, Hell West and Crooked:
   • No one had any clear notion of how many head might be collected, but we counted on something over four hundred--possibly up to five hundred and fifty, including calves and cleanskins. 1921, Joseph Furphy, Rigby′s Romance, Gutenberg Australia eBook #0607461h:
2. A person who does not have any tattoos.
   • And it had been the witness ID of his tattoos that had sunk him. Now with a forged passport he was going back to the Continent a new man, if not a cleanskin. 2010, Adam Shand, King of Thieves, page 79:
   • If you're under 18 in Victoria you must now remain a cleanskin. The Government has just passed a bill that minors must not be tattooed with or without their parent's consent. 1962, The Bulletin, page 20:
   • Both men and women are tattooed, and so important are tattoos for traditional Samoans that it is impossible to serve or be apprenticed to a village leader if you are a cleanskin. 2010, Nan McNab, Body Bizarre, Body Beautiful:
3. Someone with no prior criminal record, a person with no previous convictions; loosely, someone who has not done anything wrong before, an unblemished character.
   • Ryan′s natural father was a cleanskin – a police term for a person with no criminal history – who found himself caught up in the world of career criminals when he married into The Clan. 2007, Poul Anderson, Shocking Australian True Crime Stories, page 169:
   • So the only strategy likely to hurt Clegg in those circumstances involves arguing that the Lib Dems are part of the mould too – not cleanskins, but a party with 60-plus MPs in that last discredited parliament. 2010 April 19, Gaby Hinsliff, The Guardian:
4. (Australia, New-Zealand) An unlabelled bottle of wine.
   • Mr McKenzie said that two years ago a decent bottle of sauvignon blanc sold for $15 to $20, but today prices were down to $10 a bottle. "More cleanskins entering the market is the first indication there is too much SB out there," he said. 2010 April 16, Teresa Ooi, The Australian:
   • My eye-whites still woke up bright and clear despite the night before's two bottles of cheap cleanskin wine. 2011, Craig Sherborne, The Amateur Science of Love, page 64:
   • In 2009, Back Label commissioned Voice to design a label for its cleanskin. 2010, Terry Lee Stone, Managing the Design Process Implementing Design: An Essential Manual for the Working Designer, page 47:
5. An undercover police officer who has not done a particular task before.
6. A cricket bat with no maker's logo

Forms

Synonyms

clearskin

Translations (4)

bg недамгосано животно (an unbranded animal) · ru неклеймёное живо́тное (an unbranded animal) · ru чи́стый (someone with no prior criminal record, a person with no previous convictions) · bg чист (someone with no prior criminal record, a person with no previous convictions)