thin legs; skinny shins
Rare term referring to thin or slender lower legs. Often used in set expressions like 痩せ脛を食う (to live off someone else's money, literally 'to eat someone's skinny shins').
He lives off his parents' money (literally, 'gnawing at their skinny shins').
The word 痩せ脛 is rarely used in modern Japanese.
Standard kanji spelling for this rare term.
Variant using the less common 臑 character for shin.
Compound of 痩せ (yase, 'thinness') and 脛 (zune, 'shin'). The exact historical derivation is uncertain, but the term is now rare and mostly preserved in idiomatic expressions.