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Synonyms

skin alive

Idioms  

  1. Punish severely, as in If I find the guy who slashed my tire I'll skin him alive. This hyperbolic expression transfers the barbaric practice of flaying a live prisoner to other forms of punishment. [Colloquial mid-1800s]

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

I give thee, Bird, advice; If thou wouldst save thy skin alive, Let me not warn thee twice, "Grack-grack-grack-grack-grack-grack— Go on and ne'er look back!"

From Project Gutenberg

It was difficult to trace what it was; something all in a heap, brown naked skin; alive, as might be known by the heaving breathing.

From Project Gutenberg

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.