?1541 R. Copland Guy de Chauliac's Questyonary Cyrurgyens sig. H.j Demaunde. Wherof is the substaunce of the coueryng of the herte? Answere. It is called precordium, & is of a skynny substaunce.

1574 J. Baret Aluearie F 688 To flie with skinny winges.

1601 P. Holland tr. Pliny Hist. World II. xxiii. Proeme The bones charged with purulent and skinnie matter.

1615 H. Crooke Μικροκοσμογραϕια 236 Heere is also to be obserued a skinny Ligament.

1641 J. Milton Of Reformation 13 Settling in a skinny congealment of ease and sloth at the top.

1657 S. Purchas Theatre Flying-insects 6 The Bee hath four dry pellucid skinny wings.

1753 N. Torriano tr. J. B. L. Chomel Hist. Diss. Gangrenous Sore Throat 94 Those loosened Pieces of skinny Membranes.

1792 W. Withering Bot. Arrangem. Brit. Plants III. Introd. p. xxviii The middle row of scales the largest, all more or less membranaceous and skinny.

1805 Med. & Physical Jrnl. 14 71 Whirls..surrounded by a skinny sheath.

1871 B. Jowett tr. Plato Dialogues II. 569 The hair sprang up in the skin, being of a skinny and stringy nature.

1931 E. G. Boulenger Fishes xx. 160 The numerous skinny appendages round the mouth.

1976 M. L. Andrews Life that lives on Man 11 After a bath..they [sc. microorganisms] emerge from the nooks and skinny crannies where they multiply.

2007 L. Pelzman And No More Sorrow iii. 105 They [sc. lice] fill up with blood in no time, so that their thin, skinny membrane explodes with the slightest touch.

1833 T. Hood Public Dinner 152 The subscription still skinny.

1838 W. Holloway Gen. Dict. Provincialisms Skinny, mean; inhospitable.

1858 ‘G. Eliot’ Jane's Repentance in Scenes Clerical Life 163/1 Liza told me herself as Mrs. Phipps was as skinny as skinny i' the kitchen, for all they keep so much company.

1890 Lancet 2 Aug. 246/2 As a rule, the whole of the men in a factory would contribute, and ‘skinny’ ones were not let off easily.

1938 Moberly (Missouri) Monitor-Index 19 May 9/5 Nettie and Pam are related, an' it's a mean skinny way to treat your own flesh and blood, talkin' like Nettie is.

1974 P. De Vries Glory of Hummingbird ix. 115 Why was he being so skinny about it, instead of laughing?

1997 W. Rollinson Dict. Cumbrian Dial. 146/2 Skinny, mean, stingy.

1915 Waterloo (Iowa) Times-Tribune 4 Feb. 9/7 (heading) Skinny clothes in vogue this year. The correctly dressed man for 1915 will display a ‘quick fit’. Fashion has decreed that the tight fitting clothes of the past year shall become more so.

1959 Oakland (Calif.) Tribune 30 July e13/2 Variety is infinite in the cocktail and evening clothes. Beside the resurrected sack, there are skinny three-tiered effects, sheaths and puffballs.

1970 ‘D. Halliday’ Dolly & Cookie Bird vii. 96 Janey's friends..in skinny sweaters and bell-bottomed corduroy trousers.

1982 Times 2 Apr. 10/3 Teddy bear fur over skinny suede skirts.

2006 N.Y. Times (National ed.) 4 May e7/3 Skinny jeans are pretty much a backlash against the boot-leg cut.

1969 N.Y. Times 2 Nov. f39/6 (advt.) Virtually every leading food producer is in the Lo-Calorie business... Skinny Shakes..Skinny Malteds..Skinny Parfaits..Skinny Hot Chocolate.

1993 N.Y. Times 22 Dec. c6 Many New Yorkers are becoming fluent in the new language by practicing at home in front of the mirror—make that a double-tall-iced-decaf-skinny cappuccino, please.

2002 Eve Oct. 147/2 A skinny Venti latte has 144 fewer calories, and a slinky 17g less fat than its whole-milk cousin.

1938 R. Hallet Rolling World 287 Had she really given me the skinny of an actual legend from the archives of her race, or was she wafting me the native poetry of her soul?

1957 A. Myrer Big War 94 I'll cut you in on some hot skinnay.

1974 E. Brawley Rap (1975) ii. xxiii. 363 Come to lay some skinny on you that I picked up off the vine.

1979 D. Anthony Long Hard Cure xxi. 162 Who killed her, Butler? Let's have the skinny.

1980 ‘L. Cody’ Dupe xxiii. 165 Give them the skinny but keep the kudos.

2006 Loaded Dec. 168 We get the skinny on the hectic world of the Virgin Mobile Cup—and the TV show that's captured all the action.

1940 M. Marples Public School Slang 190 St. Bees..used wimp (a corruption of women) and the Arabic bint of women in general, while skinny liz was applied, almost as a nickname, to any elderly woman.

1959 I. Opie & P. Opie Lore & Lang. Schoolchildren ix. 169 Thin people..skin and bones, skinny,..skinny guts, Skinny Liz, skinny-malink.

1961 N. Fitzgerald Black Welcome iv. 95 She takes no interest in..eatin'. That's why she's such a Skinny Liz.

2006 Mirror (Nexis) 2 Feb. 49 Your boyfriend must have noticed you're no skinny Lizzie and is fine about it, so your prime focus should be whether you're ready for sex, not whether you shape up.

1965 Times 15 Mar. 15/4 (caption) Sophisticated version of the skinny-rib sweater in luxury all-over cable in 3-ply cashmere; colours white, turquoise, pale blue or scarlet.

1976 Milton Keynes Express 25 June 11/1 (advt.) Skirts, blouses, and skinny ribs.

2000 A. Maxted in J. Adams et al. Girls' Night In 426 Hattie..disappears into a room and returns brandishing a skinny rib silver top and bootleg leather trousers.

1939 J. Steinbeck Grapes of Wrath xxii. 423 She thinned out and she skinnied out, an'—she dropped that baby, dead.

1986 Orange County (Calif.) Business Jrnl. (Nexis) 13 Oct. 6 When times got a little tough we began skinnying down, and not investing as heavily in R & D.

1990 San Francisco Chron. (Nexis) 3 Jan. (People section) b3 My wife will shed me if I don't skinny up. ‘You blot out the sun,’ she said to me the other day.

2003 M. D. O'Brien Cry of Stone 305 The creek skinnied down into a thin brook under the pulsing sun.

1981 TV Picture Life Mar. 61/1 (advt.) All the difficult ‘skinnying-down’ has been done for you while you slept.

1997 R. H. Beatty Perfect Cover Let. (2004) vii. 101 Compounding this problem of volume competition has been the ‘skinnying down’ process many employers have gone through in recent years.

2004 Roanoke (Va.) Times (Nexis) 30 Aug. The president calls for a general skinnying of Americans.