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A hide was the skin of an animal.
In the 1770s it was commonplace for butchers' shops to display hides of animals in advertisement of their business, as they certainly did at Brillot's shop in France. (PROSE: The Adventuress of Henrietta Street)
Hides could also have a more practical use. As Ace once observed on Arden, the Shenn, at one point in their history, had used the "hides of various animals for disguise and protection". (PROSE: Shadowmind) The Seventh Doctor also claimed to know of a country where the citizens made mats from the hides of the Uncommon Green Bear, and then laid them on the pavement to prevent walking on the cracks. (PROSE: The Death of Art)
Not everyone liked hides. The Scarlet Empress Cassandra of Hyspero once told Iris Wildthyme that she thought the practice of skinning, curing, stretching and hanging of individual Scarlet Guards' tattooed hides upon their death was "barbaric". (PROSE: The Scarlet Empress)
Others used their own hides to augment their religious practices. The Ghillighast worshipped lice and, according to Marn, "believe[d] the lice in their hides gave them insight into the very workings of the Enclave". (PROSE: The Blue Angel)
The hides of the Tryods were commercially valuable, with the leader Qar paying two hundred pieces for every Tryod hide. (PROSE: The Word of Asiries)
As colloquialism[]
Because humans were considered to have hides, a number of expressions arose, most of them to imply a metaphoric threat. For instance Captain Jack Hobson once issued the general threat that he'd "tear the hides off" anyone who had been tampering with the Moonbase's compression chamber. (TV: The Moonbase) Similarly, another base commander, General Cutler, once promised to "have [the] hides" of any of his men who failed a particular assignment he'd given them. (TV: The Tenth Planet) Sezon also used this expression to indicate his displeasure with he and others in his rebellion had become lax. (PROSE: Timelash)