Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
to skin over

to skin over

1 4.1
A wound gets covered with new skin as it heals
  • phrasal verb
: cubrirse de piel
  • The cut will skin over in a few days.

Examples

  • As the burn healed, it slowly skinned over, leaving a faint scar.

  • The cut on his arm finally began to skin over after a week.

  • If you don’t touch the wound, it should skin over soon.

  • After a week, the wound skinned over nicely.

  • After a week, the cut on my finger started to skin over as it healed.

  • The doctor said the wound would skin over in a few days if I keep it clean.

  • Once the area begins to skin over, you should avoid picking at it.

How Healed

to recover
865 2.5
to skin over
1 4.1
to heal
726 1.2

Surface Forms

skin over infinitive
skinned over past
skinned over past participle
skinning over present participle
skins over third person singular

Morphology

skin + over

The meaning 'to become covered with a new layer of skin' is directly derivable from combining 'skin' (the body's outer covering) with the particle 'over' which conveys covering or completion. This follows common English verb+particle composition (e.g., 'cover over', 'scab over') and is conceptually transparent, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents can infer the meaning.

Etymology

The verb skin over comes from the simple image of a wound growing new skin that comes over the cut and hides it. That's why it means 'to become covered with new skin' as the wound heals.