The tutor employs the crescent when it is evident that the lesson has been skinned, according to the college vocabulary, in which case he usually puts a minus sign after it, with the mark which he in all probability would have used had not the lesson been skinned.—­Yale Banger, Nov. 1846.

Never skin a lesson which it requires any ability to learn.—­Yale Lit.  Mag., Vol.  XV. p. 81.

He has passively admitted what he has skinned from other grammarians.—­Yale Banger, Nov. 1846.

Perhaps the youth who so barefacedly skinned the song referred to, fondly fancied, &c.—­The Tomahawk, Nov. 1849.

He uttered that remarkable prophecy which Horace has so boldly skinned and called his own.—­Burial of Euclid, Nov. 1850.

A Pewter medal is awarded in the Senior Class, for the most remarkable example of skinned Composition.—­Burlesque Catalogue, Yale Coll., 1852-53, p. 29.

Classical men were continually tempted to “skin” (copy) the solutions of these examples.—­Bristed’s Five Years in an Eng.  Univ., Ed. 2d, p. 381.

To skin ahead; at Hamilton College, to read a lesson over in the class immediately before reciting.

SKIN.  A lesson learned by hearing it read by another; borrowed ideas; anything plagiarized.

  ’T was plenty of skin with a good deal of Bohn.[65]
    Songs, Biennial Jubilee, Yale Coll., 1855.

SKINNING.  Learning, or the act of learning, a lesson by hearing it read by another; plagiarizing.

Alas for our beloved orations! acquired by skinning, looking on, and ponies.—­Yale Banger, Oct. 1848.

Barefaced copying from books and reviews in their compositions is familiar to our students, as much so as “skinning” their mathematical examples.—­Bristed’s Five Years in an Eng.  Univ., Ed. 2d, p. 394.

SKUNK.  At Princeton College, to fail to pay a debt; used actively; e.g. to skunk a tailor, i.e. not to pay him.

SLANG.  To scold, chide, rebuke.  The use of this word as a verb is in a measure peculiar to students.

These drones are posted separately as “not worthy to be classed,” and privately slanged afterwards by the Master and Seniors.—­Bristed’s Five Years in an Eng.  Univ., Ed. 2d, p. 74.

“I am afraid of going to T------,” you may hear it said; “he don’t
slang his men enough.”—­Ibid., p. 148.

His vanity is sure to be speedily checked, and first of all by his private tutor, who “slangs” him for a mistake here or an inelegancy there.—­Ibid., p. 388.

SLANGING.  Abusing, chiding, blaming.

As he was not backward in slanging,—­one of the requisites of a good coach,—­he would give it to my unfortunate composition right and left.—­Bristed’s Five Years in an Eng.  Univ., Ed. 2d, p. 166.