a condition or state of extreme thinness, usually the result of malnutrition; emaciation:
Anorexia had reduced her to skin and bones.
Also, skin and bone.
Origin
1400-50;late Middle English
Examples from the web for skin and bones
Drain oil from salmon, remove skin and bones, rub through a sieve.
Severe cases may also cause open sores or damage to the skin and bones, if the circulation is cut off for too long.
They could eat their prey and he got the skin and bones for his natural history museum.
She wasn't all skin and bones the way she used to be.
We feed him about eight times a day, but yet he's skin and bones now.
Meanwhile, coarsely shred chicken, discarding skin and bones.
Discard skin and bones from duck confit, then shred meat.
When chicken is cool, pull meat into shreds, discarding skin and bones.
They would reuse the skin and bones for clothing, shelter and tools.
Canned salmon is made from domestic pink salmon with the skin and bones removed.
Idioms and Phrases with skin and bones
skin and bones
Painfully thin, emaciated. This phrase often is expanded to nothing but skin and bones, as in She came home from her trip nothing but skin and bones. This hyperbolic expression—one could hardly be alive without some flesh—dates from the early 1400s.