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Dictionary

Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

skin a flint en · VERB

Meanings

  1. (excessive, figuratively) Go to great lengths to save or gain something, particularly money.
    • Deed, it wasn't Jane, for she just hates ye; she always says ye're an ould miser, an' ye'd skin a flint. Fitzpatrick, Kathleen (1937), The Weans at Rowallan, page 54
  2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see skin, a, flint.
    • The old women used to say that he would have skinned a flint to have saved a halfpenny, if he had spoilt a sixpenny knife in doing it. Miller, Thomas (1847), The Boy's Spring Book, page 33

Forms

SpellingFeaturesLabelsSource
skinning a flint Tense=Pres, VerbForm=Part lexicographic
skins a flint Number=Sing, Person=3, Tense=Pres lexicographic
skinned a flint Tense=Past, VerbForm=Part lexicographic
skinned a flint Tense=Past lexicographic

Deriveds

skinflint