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Skeleton   /skˈɛlətən/   Listen
noun
Skeleton  n.  
1.
(Anat.)
(a)
The bony and cartilaginous framework which supports the soft parts of a vertebrate animal.
(b)
The more or less firm or hardened framework of an invertebrate animal. Note: In a wider sense, the skeleton includes the whole connective-tissue framework with the integument and its appendages. See Endoskeleton, and Exoskeleton.
2.
Hence, figuratively:
(a)
A very thin or lean person.
(b)
The framework of anything; the principal parts that support the rest, but without the appendages. "The great skeleton of the world."
(c)
The heads and outline of a literary production, especially of a sermon.


adjective
Skeleton  adj.  Consisting of, or resembling, a skeleton; consisting merely of the framework or outlines; having only certain leading features of anything; as, a skeleton sermon; a skeleton crystal.
Skeleton bill, a bill or draft made out in blank as to the amount or payee, but signed by the acceptor. (Eng.)
Skeleton key, a key with nearly the whole substance of the web filed away, to adapt it to avoid the wards of a lock; a master key; used for opening locks to which it has not been especially fitted.
Skeleton leaf, a leaf from which the pulpy part has been removed by chemical means, the fibrous part alone remaining.
Skeleton proof, a proof of a print or engraving, with the inscription outlined in hair strokes only, such proofs being taken before the engraving is finished.
Skeleton regiment, a regiment which has its complement of officers, but in which there are few enlisted men.
Skeleton shrimp (Zool.), a small crustacean of the genus Caprella.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Skeleton" Quotes from Famous Books



... glance the red-brown skin drawn so tightly over his face made him resemble a mummy more than a living being, while his worn canvas and skin garments clung so tightly to him that his bodily aspect was horribly suggestive of a clothed skeleton. ...
— The Peril Finders • George Manville Fenn
... russet, the forests are black, each tree seems a skeleton; all nature, save the evergreen, looks dead. But our mountains of firs, our hills of pine, our groves of cedar, our thickets of holly, our cliffs crowned with laurel, full of life, and covered with unchangeable verdure, keep eternally fresh and beautiful. ...
— The Continental Monthly, Vol. 4, No. 2, August, 1863 - Devoted to Literature and National Policy • Various
... His eyes leaped from moundlike piles of tailings, the powdery crush spit out by the concentrating mills, to boulder-like heaps of rocks that had been wheeled away to save the teeth of the mills, and his ears turned distraught from the groaning clank of unwieldy iron tubs, swinging up through skeleton shafts, to the sputtering plunk-plunk of drill engines and the ...
— Sally of Missouri • R. E. Young
... littered all over with papers and official looking documents. The walls of the room were lined with shelves, on which were glass jars, retorts, countless bottles and many appliances of surgical science. A skeleton was propped against the mantelpiece. The atmosphere seemed heavy with the odour ...
— Anna the Adventuress • E. Phillips Oppenheim
... have been made from time to time at Compton Winyates. Not many years ago a bricked-up space was found in a wall containing a perfect skeleton!—at another an antique box full of papers belonging to the past history of the family (the Comptons) was discovered in a secret cavity ...
— Secret Chambers and Hiding Places • Allan Fea


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