First recorded in 1605–15
Anything that's skin-deep is shallow or superficial. Your skin-deep commitment to saving the environment isn't terribly serious. You may have heard the saying "beauty is only skin-deep," which means that while someone may be beautiful on the outside, their character—what's inside, and more meaningful—isn't necessarily attractive. The first attested use of skin-deep was in "A Wife," a 1613 poem by Sir Thomas Overbury: "All the carnall beauty of my wife, Is but skin-deep." Its publication infamously resulted in Overbury's murder when its subject deduced that it was about her.
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Dawn is as skin-deep as it gets, a character with no discernible motives and a frustrating absence of realism in a film that’s desperately aiming for authenticity.
From Salon ● Oct. 4, 2025
Studies exploring skin-deep resilience have found evidence of a health toll in outwardly resilient young adults from disadvantaged backgrounds, including higher risk of inflammation, immune cell aging, metabolic disorders, and chronic disease.
From Science Daily ● Jan. 4, 2024
Solidarity with the brave people of Ukraine has reminded us all what is possible when empathy is really felt, but it will be bittersweet if our solidarity is really just skin-deep.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 28, 2022
Is it a surprise, then, that for the first time in the show, the performances, under Marc Bruni’s otherwise hectic and skin-deep direction, strike real notes and admit real feeling?
From New York Times ● Nov. 10, 2021
Maybe it would just be melodrama, a skin-deep slash or two, her old theatricality; though perhaps theatrical people are not less risky, but more.
From "Cat's Eye" by Margaret Atwood
But despite their prevalence, tattoos run more than just skin deep.
From BBC ● Aug. 2, 2024
These filaments also had earthly analogs, and Siegelman used Juno's detailed imagery to study whether this similarity to our planet's oceanic and atmospheric processes was merely skin deep.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 6, 2024
To feel better, healthier and more connected, skin deep is a good place to start.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 9, 2023
It’s hard to grow up being told beauty is only skin deep, only to see it valued above nearly all else.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 2, 2022
"But beauty in a bulldog is more than skin deep," he added.
From Dick Hamilton's Fortune The Stirring Doings of a Millionaire's Son by Garis, Howard R.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
