skinful

plural skinfuls · plural skinsful

1. Enough to fill a skin.

   a skinful of wine

2. colloquialEnough alcoholic drink to cause inebriation.

   I wasn't thinking straight – I'd had a skinful that night.

   3 more examples

   When methodist preachers come down, A-preaching that drinking is sinful, I'll wager the rascals a crown, They always preach best with a skinful.

   1773, Oliver Goldsmith, She Stoops to Conquer

   “’E generally goes down there when ’e’s got ’is skinful, beggin’ your pardon, sir, an’ they do say that the more lush — in-he-briated ’e is, the more fish ’e catches.”

   1889, Rudyard Kipling, “Only A Subaltern”, in Under the Deodars, Boston: The Greenock Press, published 1899, page 140

   "People who've had a skinful," Robey explains. "They lose their inhibitions and forget the boundaries of acceptable behaviour.

   2024 August 7, Paul Clifton, “You absolute moron!”, in RAIL, number 1015, page 54

3. slangPlenty; a large amount.

   “Now there's a skinful of abuse!” the curly top exclaimed. “Sounds as if she crossed the ocean just to denounce you in a public place.”

   2011, Anne Emery, Death at Christy Burke's, page 102

   1 more example

   To steal a housewife's purse might mean that her children would have to go hungry; but what of that, if the flash young “dip” could gain admiration from his mates by boasting that he had “frisked a judy's cly and lifted a skinful of bunce”?

   1959, Frank Clune, Murders on Maunga-tapu, page 10