cleanskin

See also: clean skin

English

WOTD – 26 May 2011

Etymology

From clean +‎ skin.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkliːnskɪn/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Audio (General Australian):

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• Rhymes: -iːnskɪn

Noun

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

an unbranded animal

• Russian: неклеймёное живо́тное (neklejmjónoje živótnoje)

someone with no prior criminal record, a person with no previous convictions

• Russian: (informal) чи́стый (ru) (čístyj)