skin job n. 2
a robot that has skin; (spec.) an android that cannot easily be distinguished from a human
Chiefly associated with the 1982 film Blade Runner.
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1981
I got five skin jobs walking the streets. [Ibid.] A big fucking skin job put the smash on me, wrecked me up!
Blade Runner (film script, 23 Feb.) -
1992 N-Force Nov. 21/3
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Well in fact he’s never been away cos this is Arnie’s first outing on the SNES as a T800 Cyberdine Systems series 101 infiltration unit (skin job to you guys).
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2002
As the character Pete, a TV cameraman from (where else?) New York who first annoys and then charms Jolie, he exhibits so few genuine human emotions it’s clear he’s just a skin job from some other Edward Burns movie.
in Toronto Star 26 Apr. 3/2
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2006
This is a risky operation just to nail a couple dozen skin jobs. I mean, we can’t kill them. They’ll just download into a new body.
Downloaded (Battlestar Galactica episode) (transcript) 24 Feb. -
2008
He was with one of those skin jobs, the one they call D’Anna.
Six of One (Battlestar Galactica episode) (transcript) 11 Apr. -
2017
In the first scenes [of the movie Blade Runner 2049], K hunts one such model and kills him. Back at LAPD headquarters, the cops discuss the dead target; a technician dismisses him as a run-of-the-mill ‘skin job’ before mumbling sorry to another colleague who happens to be a replicant, too—just the way any office worker might apologize for a racist or sexist quip.
Globe & Mail (Toronto) 6 Oct. (electronic ed.)
Research requirements
antedating 1981
Earliest cite
Blade Runner
Research History
Suggested by Bill Mullins
Last modified 2021-08-09 15:05:04
In the compilation of some
entries, HDSF has drawn extensively on corresponding entries
in OED.