Meaning & use
skin diver
Last updated
Meaning
nouncountable
A person who swims underwater using only a mask, fins and often a snorkel, holding their breath instead of breathing from a tank.
Grammar: A regular countable noun: one skin diver, two skin divers.
Patterns
- a skin diver in something
- skin diver for something
The skin diver kicked slowly along the reef, coming up for air every minute or so.
Local skin divers collect sea urchins from the rocks near the harbor.
My uncle was a keen skin diver long before scuba courses became popular.
Word forms
| plural | skin divers |
|---|
Common combinations
- experienced skin diver
- Only an experienced skin diver should try that deep channel.
- a skin diver's mask
- She bought a skin diver's mask with a wide field of vision.
- become a skin diver
- He became a skin diver after a holiday in the Red Sea.
- skin diver and spearfisher
- The skin diver and spearfisher shared the boat with two tourists.
- amateur skin diver
- An amateur skin diver found the old anchor in shallow water.
Synonyms and how they differ
- free diver
- A free diver is usually someone who trains to hold their breath for depth or time, so it suggests a more serious sport than casual skin diving.
- snorkeler
- A snorkeler mostly floats on the surface and looks down, whereas a skin diver also dives below the surface.
- scuba diver
- A scuba diver breathes from a tank, so it is the opposite of a skin diver in equipment and time underwater.
Opposites
Word family
- skin diving noun
- the activity of diving without breathing equipment
- dive verb
- to go under water head first
- diver noun
- anyone who dives, with or without equipment
Commonly confused: skin diver or scuba diver?
skin diver vs scuba diver
A scuba diver wears a tank and breathes underwater; a skin diver does not.
Practice
Which person is best described as a skin diver?
Choose one answer.
A skin diver has no breathing equipment and relies on one held breath. The tank user is a scuba diver.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “skin diver”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.