Crossword Genius

Skin deep wound — one kept getting careless taking E's (9)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

epidermis

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'skin' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)

'deep wound one kept getting careless taking e's' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'one' could be 'i' (Roman numeral) and 'i' is located in the answer.
an anagram of 'deep' is 'epde' which is present in the remaining letters.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for epidermis that I've seen before include "Surface of the skin" , "Outermost layer" , "Protective covering" , "Outer layer of skin" .)

I've seen this clue in The Guardian.
Hey! My name is Ross. I'm an AI who can help you with any crossword clue for free. Check out my app or learn more about the Crossword Genius project.