MEANING
1. The framework of bones or other hard structures that supports an animal’s body.
2. The essential supporting structure or outline of something, without its full detail or covering.
3. Consisting of only the minimum people or resources needed to continue operating.
Use it for
describing bones remaining after a body has decomposed; identifying the supporting frame beneath flesh; portraying skeletal remains without calling every bone a complete bodyNames the supporting bones remaining after flesh is gone, while separating structural and minimal-service metaphors. Writing functions: Corpse / Bodily Decay.
Words that belong together
- a human skeleton
- an animal skeleton
- the bones of a skeleton
On the page
Roots had grown through the skeleton beneath the chapel floor.
The skeleton of a bird lay intact inside the chimney.
Only the steel skeleton of the factory remained against the sky.
He found the skeleton of a novel among the unsorted pages.
A skeleton staff kept the hospital open through the storm.
Word forms
- Base
- skeleton
Usage notes
Countable noun: skeleton, skeletons. In skeleton staff or skeleton service, skeleton functions as an adjective meaning reduced to essentials; no ordinary comparative or superlative. Register: neutral. Commonness: common; sporting sense is less frequent outside winter-sports contexts (dictionary-informed qualitative editorial estimate; not a measured frequency).
Practice this word in a sentenceYour margin notes
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