Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Superficial; shallow.
  • adverb In a shallow manner; superficially.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • In a superficial manner; superficially; slightly.
  • Not penetrating or extending deeper than the thickness of the skin; superficial.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Not deeper than the skin; hence, superficial.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective figuratively shallow, superficial.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective penetrating no deeper than the skin:

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

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Examples

  • Politicians and voters believe what they believe, and those beliefs are more than skin-deep.

    Matthew Yglesias » House GOP Virginia Caucus Snubs Kaine, Doesn’t Care About VA’s Fate in the Stimulus 2009

  • Here are some questions and answers about flu vaccinations:Q: How does the new skin-deep vaccine work?

    Time for flu shots, and some may get a tiny needle 2011

  • Who knows what prodigious talents have been and are buried by appearance -- skin-deep, perhaps, but nevertheless for most an impenetrable barrier, whether socially constructed or an evolutionary mating-ritual imperative.

    Archive 2009-04-01 2009

  • Meanwhile, investors fears that BP's much-vaunted reforms are skin-deep.

    BP Comeback Is Sidetracked in Arctic Guy Chazan 2011

  • He was a selfish cry-baby, hidden behind a man's mustache and stature, and glossed over with a skin-deep veneer of culture and conventionality.

    The Priestly Prerogative 2010

  • The titillating content is still very front and center in this new Skins, but it only goes skin-deep, lacking sting or zing when so clumsily executed.

    Roush Review: Remakes and a Retread 2011

  • Psychologists probably have some big technical words for that extra measure of human understanding that comes to men who have faced suffering and death first hand and some peculiar explanation of why they so often develop a skin-deep toughness that seems to contrast with the idea of playing Santa Claus to hundreds of thousands of young people....

    Beth Crumley: Marines and Toys for Tots: A History Beth Crumley 2011

  • I was only fifteen, and I had lived all my days in the thick of the mystery stuff, while my scepticism, very recently acquired, was only skin-deep.

    SHIN-BONES 2010

  • Psychologists probably have some big technical words for that extra measure of human understanding that comes to men who have faced suffering and death first hand and some peculiar explanation of why they so often develop a skin-deep toughness that seems to contrast with the idea of playing Santa Claus to hundreds of thousands of young people....

    Beth Crumley: Marines and Toys for Tots: A History Beth Crumley 2011

  • Actually, the pain barely goes skin-deep, which is about as deep as this shallow dud of a lark ever goes.

    Matt's TV Week in Review 2010

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