This term, together with the verb and noun size, which had been in use at Harvard and Yale Colleges since their foundation, has of late been little heard, and with the extinction of commons has, with the others, fallen wholly, and probably for ever, into disuse.
The use of this word and its collaterals is still retained in the
University of Cambridge, Eng.
Along the wall you see two tables, which, though less carefully provided than the Fellows', are still served with tolerable decency, and go through a regular second course instead of the "sizings."—Bristed's Five Years in an Eng. Univ., Ed. 2d, p. 20.
SIZING PARTY. In the University of Cambridge, Eng., where this term is used, a "sizing party" says the Gradus ad Cantabrigiam, "differs from a supper in this; viz. at a sizing party every one of the guests contributes his part, i.e. orders what he pleases, at his own expense, to his friend's rooms,—'a part of fowl' or duck; a roasted pigeon; 'a part of apple pie.' A sober beaker of brandy, or rum, or hollands and water, concludes the entertainment. In our days, a bowl of bishop, or milk punch, with a chant, generally winds up the carousal."
SKIN. At Yale College, to obtain a knowledge of a lesson by hearing it read by another; also, to borrow another's ideas and present them as one's own; to plagiarize; to become possessed of information in an examination or a recitation by unfair or secret means. "In our examinations," says a correspondent, "many of the fellows cover the palms of their hands with dates, and when called upon for a given date, they read it off directly from their hands. Such persons skin."
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.