SKELETON KEY • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Skeleton key

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/skˈɛlətən ki/ Listen

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.

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Etymology of 'Skeleton key'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Skeleton key" Quotes from Famous Books

... stories. But after all, how little difference it makes whether or not a writer appears with a mask on which everybody can take off,—whether he bolts his door or not, when everybody can look in at his windows, and all his entrances are at the mercy of the critic's skeleton key and the jimmy of ...

— The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table • Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (The Physician and Poet not the Jurist)

... skeleton key used by housebreakers to open a lock. To stand on the screw signifies that a door is not bolted, but ...

— 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue • Captain Grose et al.

... we'll effect an entrance," he declared, and produced a curious-looking skeleton key. "This ...

— Strawberry Acres • Grace S. Richmond

... have fancied that gloves were a kind of passport, or perhaps a skeleton key guaranteed to open principals' doors. It was Mr. Smith who first made me feel that there was a connection between morals, respectability, and cold baths. To miss the morning tub, as Mr. Smith saw it, was not merely a calamity but also a disgrace; a thing to make one ashamed; a lapse calculated ...

— The Record of Nicholas Freydon - An Autobiography • A. J. (Alec John) Dawson

... arm, a skeleton key was selected from the bunch, and then back went his arm to the shoulder. It was a breathless moment. I heard the heart throbbing in my body, the very watch ticking in my pocket, and ever and anon the tinkle-tinkle of the skeleton key. Then—at last—there ...

— The Amateur Cracksman • E. W. Hornung