skin and bones
or skin and bone
- a condition or state of extreme thinness, usually the result of malnutrition; emaciation: Anorexia had reduced her to skin and bones.
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Origin of skin and bones
late Middle English word dating back to 1400–50
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for skin and bones
Historical Examples
Toward the end William looked like the skin-and-bones remnant of a saint.
A Circuit Rider's WifeCorra Harris
Idioms and Phrases with skin and bones
skin and bones
Painfully thin, emaciated. This phrase often is expanded to nothing but skin and bones, as in She came home from her trip nothing but skin and bones. This hyperbolic expression—one could hardly be alive without some flesh—dates from the early 1400s.
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The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.