Cleanskin
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 An unbranded animal. Australia
"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."
- 2 A person who does not have any tattoos.
"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 or without their parent's consent."
- 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.
"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."
- 4 An unlabelled bottle of wine. Australia, New-Zealand
"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."
- 5 An undercover police officer who has not done a particular task before.
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- 6 A cricket bat with no maker's logo
Synonyms
All synonymsExample
More examples"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."
Etymology
From clean + skin.
Related phrases
More for "cleanskin"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.