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to keep one's eyes skinned

to keep one's eyes skinned

8.2
Watch carefully for danger or a chance to act
  • idiom
  • UK
translation icon : estar muy atento
  • Oh, and the lookouts have been warned to keep their eyes skinned for ice.

Examples

  • l'd keep my eyes skinned if l were you.

    Bad Taste (1987)

  • You can't say I don't keep my eyes skinned, can you?

    Night Must Fall (1937)

  • Just keep your eyes skinned, and everything else shut.

    The Land That Time Forgot (2009)

  • You keep your eyes skinned.

    The Decemberists: A Practical Handbook (2006)

  • Call up the the lookouts and tell them to keep their eyes skinned for small ice and growlers.

    A Night to Remember (1958)

  • Right, it's your name; you can do that. Safeway, keep your eyes skinned, and I could murder a Chicken McNugget.

    Fiction book (1993)

  • Keep your eyes skinned.

    Local Hero (1983)

  • As we walked through the city, I reminded my friends to keep their eyes skinned for any interesting shops.

  • The manager told the staff to keep their eyes skinned for any signs of trouble during the event.

  • During the hike, we have to keep our eyes skinned for wild animals that could pose a threat.

Synonyms

to watch
vsto keep one's eyes skinned
∞ 1.0

To be careful and pay attention to possible danger

is also alert to chance and opportunity, not limited to danger avoidance
to watch out
vsto keep one's eyes skinned
  • Informal
582 3.0

To be careful to avoid danger or trouble

is alert to opportunity as well as danger, not just avoiding harm
to keep an eye on
vsto keep one's eyes skinned
  • Informal
408 2.4

To watch someone or something carefully to make sure nothing bad happens

is alert to danger or opportunity rather than continuous monitoring
to look out
vsto keep one's eyes skinned
153 1.6

Watch for danger or trouble

is alert also to chance and opportunity, not only to danger
to keep an eye out
vsto keep one's eyes skinned
  • Informal
134 3.2

Watch carefully for someone or something

is alert more broadly to danger or chance, not only to specific arrivals
to keep one's eyes open
vsto keep one's eyes skinned
97 3.8

Watch carefully for danger or a chance

is the same idea, stressing alertness to danger and chance
to keep one's eyes peeled
vsto keep one's eyes skinned
  • Informal
16 4.6

Watch carefully for something important or dangerous

is alert more generally to danger or opportunity rather than one target
to keep a close watch
vsto keep one's eyes skinned
8 3.0

Look at a person or thing very carefully for a while to notice problems

is more about alertness to danger or opportunity than long monitoring
to keep an eye peeled
vsto keep one's eyes skinned
  • Informal
1 6.0

Watch carefully for something you expect to see

is alert in general to danger or opportunity, not only one target

Antonyms

to ignore
∞ 1.0

Choose not to pay attention to someone or something

to disregard
119 3.9

Ignore something or someone on purpose

How Alert

high alert
25 3.6
to keep one's eyes skinned
  • UK
8.2

Surface Forms

keep one's eyes skinned infinitive
keeping one's eyes skinned present participle
keeps one's eyes skinned third person singular
kept one's eyes skinned past
kept one's eyes skinned past participle

Morphology

keep + one + eye + skinned

The adjective 'skinned' here is used idiomatically and not in its literal sense, so a learner who knows 'keep', 'one', and 'eye' would not predict 'be especially watchful' from the parts. The expression parallels idioms like 'keep your eyes peeled' but relies on a language-specific, metaphorical usage of 'skinned', making the meaning unpredictable for a B1 learner.

Etymology

Keep one's eyes skinned may come from an old hunting image: one popular story says people imagined keeping their eyes 'skinned', that is, open and bare so they could see everything around them. So the phrase now means 'to be especially watchful or alert'.