skin-deep
adjective
us
/ˌskɪnˈdiːp/ uk
/ˌskɪnˈdiːp/After the first half-hour she realized that her new-found confidence was no more than skin-deep.
Meaning of skin-deep in English
(Definition of skin-deep from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)
skin-deep | Intermediate English
skin-deep
adjective
us/ˈskɪnˈdip/Her confidence was only skin-deep.
Examples of skin-deep
skin-deep
Everyone cultivates a fashionable, skin-deep vulnerability; underneath, they're superheroes with jujitsu skills and heads full of put-downs.
From The New Yorker
The notable exception to the rule that marinades only work skin-deep is brining.
From Los Angeles Times
That is, the belief that race isn't a social or political issue, rather, it is something we see and is merely skin-deep.
From NPR
This incongruity over the group's designation is more than skin-deep; it reflects some confusion over the group's original aims.
But dig below these skin-deep similarities and shared geographies, and you'll find two fundamentally different strategies.
From The Verge
Clearly, even today's trends in plastic surgery raise more than skin-deep issues.
From Huffington Post
I was about to express my fears that the lotion would injure her skin, when an accident occurred which threatened more than a skin-deep injury.
From Project Gutenberg
They become, under such circumstances, more than clothes--they are at least skin-deep.
From Project Gutenberg
The capitalist and labor groups are locked together in desperate battle, and neither side is swayed by moral considerations more than skin-deep.
From Project Gutenberg
They have not our culture, and whatsoever they borrow from us is only skin-deep.
From Project Gutenberg
It is not barbarous merely because the printing is skin-deep and unalterable.
From Project Gutenberg
They were the most friendly of antagonists, and their animosity was not skin-deep.
From Project Gutenberg
He was sorry, with the skin-deep commiseration of youth for those who fall, whose falling thins the crowded ranks of competition.
From Project Gutenberg
But if his words and writings are examined, it will be seen that this mobility was only skin-deep.
From Project Gutenberg
You are deceiving your father--and others--with a pretended reform which isn't skin-deep!
From Project Gutenberg
These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.
