scantily clad/show too much skin (2024)

Hi,

My friend asked me how to describe a woman who dressed a little, probably you could see the cleavage or something, I said "almost naked", I know I said this for fun, then I looked up, I found these two phrases. And it's from a Chinese-English learning program, one learns English and there's always a native speak, that kind.

I wonder if I can say "She's scantily clad" or "She shows too much skin".

My analysis is, when I said "She's scantily clad", this expresses my intended meaning (a woman who's sexy and wants to attract men), while "She shows too much skin" just means it and doesn't have the connotation of "wants to attract men", am I right?

If I want to describe a woman who dresses a little and wants to attract man, can I use the above?

"She's scantily clad" means she's wearing very little - maybe just her underwear or a bikini.
"She shows too much skin" means, in the speaker's opinion, she is showing too much of her body - maybe she's wearing a low-cut top, or a short skirt.

Neither says anything about the woman's intentions.

“Scantily clad” can mean just not wearing a lot of clothes (e.g. dressed for the beach), but it’s also an expression associated, for example, with “glamour” models whose purpose is to titillate.

Saying that a woman “shows too much skin” is a straightforward criticism of the way she dresses.

Thanks a lot, Heypresto and Lingobingo.

If I want to describe a woman who is in the habit of wearing too little, probably wants to show her sexy skin and attract men, what can I say?

lingobingo said:

It would be wise to not say any such thing!

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I know it's rude and impolite. I am not saying that I would say this to a woman, I won't. People here usually do it when someone's away or not know about it.

You little ripper! said:

“She dresses provocatively” might work. It doesn’t specifically say that she is scantily clad, but most people would assume that.

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Thanks a lot. You Little Ripper.

lingobingo said:

I’m sure they do. That’s human nature. But what people might say behind someone else’s back would probably be a lot more critical than Ylr’s suggestion.

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Actually this is a social phenomenon and I'm trying to find a politically correct way to describe that, here's a link to local news.

I can't see what the fuss is about. Is that really shocking? Is it really headline-worthy?

Translated (by Google)it says :

A woman in the Nanjing Metro wears an exposed scale and can't bear to look straight.

The netizen uploaded a video on the social networking site saying: I don’t even say it, you can slowly make it! The woman in the video is exposed and has a large scale.

heypresto said:

I can't see what the fuss is about. Is that really shocking? Is it really headline-worthy?

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Sorry, I can't use Google so I can't provide something useful. It is about a woman who wears a little.

No problem. I only showed the translation because it's quite amusing and obviously inaccurate. I could tell what the article was about.

I'm still surprised that it should be so newsworthy.