Associations to the word «Skeleton»

SKELETON, noun. (anatomy) The system that provides support to an organism, internal and made up of bones and cartilage in vertebrates, external in some other animals.

SKELETON, noun. A frame that provides support to a building or other construction.

SKELETON, noun. (figuratively) A very thin person.

SKELETON, noun. (From the sled used, which originally was a bare frame, like a skeleton.) A type of tobogganing in which competitors lie face down, and descend head first (compare luge). See Wikipedia:Skeleton (sport)

SKELETON, noun. (computing) A client-helper procedure that communicates with a stub.

SKELETON, noun. (geometry) The vertices and edges of a polyhedron, taken collectively.

SKELETON, noun. An anthropomorphic representation of a skeleton. See Wikipedia:Skeleton (undead)

SKELETON, noun. (figuratively) The central core of something that gives shape to the entire structure.

SKELETON, verb. (archaic) to reduce to a skeleton; to skin; to skeletonize

SKELETON, verb. (archaic) to minimize

SKELETON CREW, noun. (idiomatic) The minimum number of personnel needed to operate and maintain an item at its most simple operating requirements, such as a ship or business, during an emergency or shut down, and at the same time, to keep vital functions operating.

SKELETON IN THE CLOSET, noun. (US) A shameful secret.

SKELETON IN THE CUPBOARD, noun. A shameful secret.

SKELETON KEY, noun. A very simple design of key that usually has a cylindrical shaft (sometimes called a "shank") and a single, minimal flat, rectangular tooth or "bit".

SKELETON KEY, noun. A key that has parts filed away so that it will open a range of locks

SKELETON KEYS, noun. Plural of skeleton key

SKELETON SHRIMP, noun. Any member of the Caprellidae, a family of amphipods with a slender thread-like body.

SKELETON STAFF, noun. The minimum number of employees needed to operate a business during a vacation, weekend, or other period when people do not normally work, or full staffing is not necessary.

SKELETON STAFFS, noun. Plural of skeleton staff

SKELETON SUIT, noun. (historical) An outfit for small boys, popular from about 1790 to the late 1820s, consisting of a tight coat or jacket buttoned to a pair of high-waisted trousers.

SKELETON SUITS, noun. Plural of skeleton suit

SKELETON, noun. Something reduced to its minimal form; "the battalion was a mere skeleton of its former self"; "the bare skeleton of a novel".

SKELETON, noun. A scandal that is kept secret; "there must be a skeleton somewhere in that family's closet".

SKELETON, noun. The hard structure (bones and cartilages) that provides a frame for the body of an animal.

SKELETON, noun. The internal supporting structure that gives an artifact its shape; "the building has a steel skeleton".