skin n [ = SEALSKIN] DC ~ boot (1940).
Attrib skin bag: sealskin container used to hold oil rendered from seal blubber; SEAL BOTTLE.
[1770] 1792 CARTWRIGHT i, 55 I gave them a skinbag of oil.
skin boot: boot made of sealskin, reaching almost to the knee; SKINNY-WOPPER.
1887 BOND 45-7 The minister's skin-boots and 'vamps' lying by the fender were steaming with heat. [1894 BURKE] 47 She put on my skin boots for to keep her warm sure. 1910 GRENFELL 195 My former patient came aboard tendering me a splendid pair of skin boots. T 50/2-64 Give him [i.e. the sealskin] a couple or three coats o' cod oil, take her down, roll it up. You could make away at your skin boots then—fine ones! T 141/66-652 [We] had skin boots, you know, with a pair o' vamps in 'em an' a pair o' socks. All skin boots them times, 'cause they used to make 'em, see. T 178/9-65 [I would]n't be dressed till I was fifty years old without a pair o' skin boots on in winter. 1967 FIRESTONE 37 This church is known locally as 'skin boot' church, because the money to erect it was obtained by the sale of seal skin boots made by the women of the mission. P 207-67 She's got a fine leg for a skin boot (said of someone with a shapely leg). C 75-25 All autumn would be spent working skin boots for the men going to the icefields. The [taps] of these had to be pegged with wooden pegs so as to provide traction on the ice.
