English · Idiom Candidate

skin and bones

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Both English Tiếng Việt

Meaning · English

Extremely thin or emaciated

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

Cực kỳ gầy hoặc ốm yếu

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: human remains consisting of only skin and bones

Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

After his illness, he was skin and bones.

AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)

Sources & notes

Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.

Equivalents & related

Near equivalent da bọc xương nothing but skin and bones; mere bag of bones Tiếng Việt Near equivalent bag of bones A person who is very thin or frail English · via da bọc xương

Lighter cards are two steps away in the meaning graph — equivalents of equivalents, reached via the entry shown on the card.

Topics: Bones & skin

Common questions

What does “skin and bones” mean?

Extremely thin or emaciated Literally: human remains consisting of only skin and bones

Is “skin and bones” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.

What is the closest equivalent?

“da bọc xương” (Tiếng Việt) — near equivalent.