skin and bones

American  

Or skin and bone

noun

1. a condition or state of extreme thinness, usually the result of malnutrition; emaciation.

   Anorexia had reduced her to skin and bones.

---

skin and bones Idioms  

1. 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.

---

Etymology

Origin of skin and bones

late Middle English word dating back to 1400–50

Example Sentences

Uncle Dutch says he was skin and bones after a few weeks, and the whole crew was grumbling about Captain Graves.

From Literature

Baroness Golding said her dad told her of people at the camps who were "skin and bones with vacant eyes".

From BBC

Shred chicken into bite sized pieces, discarding skin and bones.

From Salon

“When my brother came, he was skin and bones,” Ms. Laveus said.

From New York Times

The last time their daughter saw her father, "he couldn't get out of bed. He was literally skin and bones," Gamboa said.

From Salon

Related Words

• bony
• gaunt
• scrawny
• skeletal
• skinny