skinny-wopper n also ~ hopper, ~ wapper, -whopper, ~ wop [phonetics unavailable]. Sealskin boot reaching to below the knee; SKIN BOOT.
1922 Sat Ev Post 195, 2 Sep, p. 10 [The yelling crowd] scrambled with goatlike agility to solid ice, and in their heavily spiked Eskimo skinnywoppers, or skin boots, ran like madmen across its fantastic and tumbled-up confusions. 1924 ENGLAND 6 The pavements clicked under the tread of their huge 'skinny woppers,' made of sealskin which had been tanned by Esquimau women—tanned in the primitive way, by being chewed. I marvelled at the thick soles of these water-proof boots: soles studded with 'sparables,' 'chisels,' or 'frosters,' as various kinds of nails are called. 1958 HARRINGTON 119 The captain sat on his bunk and pulled off his 'skinny-whopper' boots. 1967 FIRESTONE 34 Men from the Straits wearing seal skin boots in Corner Brook find that children call skinny-hoppers after them. C 71-113 ~ a pair of sealskin boots, very light and comfortable [but] they had to be greased each night or they would become as hard as iron. 1977 BURSEY 93 The engineer bought a pair of sealskin [moccasins] and I bought a pair of skinny hoppers for my small son.
