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cleanskin

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
See also: clean skin

English

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WOTD – 26 May 2011
English Wikipedia has an article on:
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Etymology

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From clean ‎ skin.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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cleanskin (plural cleanskins)

  1. (Australia) An unbranded animal.
    Synonym: clearskin
    • 1921, Joseph Furphy, Rigby′s Romance, Gutenberg Australia eBook #0607461h:
      No one had any clear notion of how many head might be collected, but we counted on something over four hundred--possibly up to five hundred and fifty, including calves and cleanskins.
    • 1988, Tom Cole, Hell West and Crooked:
      I started off lassoing the cleanskins, dragging them up bellowing to the bronco panel where they were quickly leg-roped, thrown and branded.
    • 1995, Darrell Lewis, Charles Schultz, Beyond the Big Run, page 96:
      The bullocks would be in the lead and you'd whip in and let the bullocks go to hell, but hang to your cleanskins as much as you could.
  2. A person who does not have any tattoos.
    • 1962, The Bulletin, page 20:
      If you're under 18 in Victoria you must now remain a cleanskin. The Government has just passed a bill that minors must not be tattooed with of without their parent's consent.
    • 2010, Nan McNab, Body Bizarre, Body Beautiful:
      Both men and women are tattooed, and so important are tattoos for traditional Samoans that it is impossible to serve or be apprenticed to a village leader if you are a cleanskin.
    • 2010, Adam Shand, King of Thieves, page 79:
      And it had been the witness ID of his tattoos that had sunk him. Now with a forged passport he was going back to the Continent a new man, if not a cleanskin.
  3. Someone with no prior criminal record, a person with no previous convictions; loosely, someone who has not done anything wrong before, an unblemished character.
    • 2007, Poul Anderson, Shocking Australian True Crime Stories‎[1], page 169:
      Ryan′s natural father was a cleanskin – a police term for a person with no criminal history – who found himself caught up in the world of career criminals when he married into The Clan.
    • 2010 April 19, Gaby Hinsliff, The Guardian:
      So the only strategy likely to hurt Clegg in those circumstances involves arguing that the Lib Dems are part of the mould too – not cleanskins, but a party with 60-plus MPs in that last discredited parliament.
  4. (Australia, New Zealand) An unlabelled bottle of wine.
    • 2010 April 16, Teresa Ooi, The Australian:
      Mr McKenzie said that two years ago a decent bottle of sauvignon blanc sold for $15 to $20, but today prices were down to $10 a bottle. "More cleanskins entering the market is the first indication there is too much SB out there," he said.
    • 2010, Terry Lee Stone, Managing the Design Process Implementing Design: An Essential Manual for the Working Designer‎[2], page 47:
      In 2009, Back Label commissioned Voice to design a label for its cleanskin.
    • 2011, Craig Sherborne, The Amateur Science of Love, page 64:
      My eye-whites still woke up bright and clear despite the night before's two bottles of cheap cleanskin wine.
  5. An undercover police officer who has not done a particular task before.
  6. (cricket) A cricket bat with no maker's logo

Translations

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