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skin and bones

or skin and bone

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noun
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

Words nearby skin and bones

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use skin and bones in a sentence

Other 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.

The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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