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skeleton

[skel-i-tn]

Example Sentences Origin

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noun

Anatomy, Zoology. the bones of a human or an animal considered as a whole, together forming the framework of the body.

any of various structures forming a rigid framework in an invertebrate.

an emaciated person or animal.

a supporting framework, as of a leaf, building, or ship.

an outline, as of a literary work: the skeleton of the plot.

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something reduced to its essential parts.

COLLAPSE

Skeleton Definition Dictionary.com Find Definitions For Any Word.Get Your Free Dictionary.com Toolbar.

adjective

of or pertaining to a skeleton.

like or being a mere framework; reduced to the essential or minimal parts or numbers: a skeleton staff.

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Skeleton is always a great word to know.

So is scapula. Does it mean:

either one of the seventh pair of cranial nerves composed of motor fibers that control muscles of the face except those used in chewing

either of two flat, triangular bones, each forming the back part of a shoulder; a shoulder blade

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Idioms

skeleton at the feast, a person or thing that casts gloom over a joyful occasion; a note or reminder of sorrow in the midst of joy.

10.

skeleton in the closet/cupboard,

a family scandal that is concealed to avoid public disgrace.

any embarrassing, shameful, or damaging secret.

Origin:
1570–80; < Neo-Latin < Greek: mummy, noun use of neuter of skeletós dried up, verbid of skéllein to dry

Related forms

skel·e·ton·less, adjective

skel·e·ton·like, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
Cite This Source

Link To skeleton

Example Sentences

For years, scientists thought they understood the skeleton.

And, in the center of the room, there would stand an enormous dinosaur skeleton that was almost entirely real.

And second, they are also of great value to those who own the skeleton.

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For years, scientists thought they understood the skeleton.

And, in the center of the room, there would stand an enormous dinosaur skeleton that was almost entirely real.

And second, they are also of great value to those who own the skeleton.

Unlike hard corals, soft corals don't leave a limestone skeleton behind and cannot regenerate.

In comparison, turtle shells are part of the vertebrate animal's so-called endoskeleton, or skeleton from within the body.

Dab it on and you've got a clean skeleton in a few days or weeks.

The solution: a second set of jaws and teeth that sprout from the skeleton around its gills.

When the shuttle's thermal protection system began to fail, the aluminum skeleton was unforgiving.

She said that all sharks and fish had a bony skeleton.

But the skeleton of a global farm-trade deal certainly exists.

Footprints can tell scientists a lot about creatures that a skeleton cannot.

The grey areas represent the parts of the skeleton they recovered.

If this is verified, they hope to put a skeleton of explanation beneath the loose flesh of coincidence.

Don't be fooled by the rigid feel and appearance of a skeleton.

Her fossil skeleton shows that she walked upright and yet had an opposable toe, good for climbing trees.

Most venture firms employ a skeleton staff of in-house experts in areas such as recruiting and marketing to help advise start-ups.

After metamorphosing into a new polyp, a young coral will start to develop its skeleton.

On a good day, an experienced fossil excavator might uncover only a few inches of skeleton.

Sue's skeleton shows signs of infection of the lower leg and right upper arm bones and curious holes in the lower jaw.

During coral growth, these elements are incorporated into the reef skeleton in varying amounts.

But the testing program the agency plans to use is only a pitiful skeleton of what it needs to be.

Other clues to what the animal ate come from the skeleton itself.

Nine days of chemotherapy followed by seven weeks of radiotherapy reduced me to skeleton.

In conversational prose, it outlines every skeleton remaining in his.

There archaeologists studied the skeleton in place for several.

Polyurethane and a five-millimeter-thick silicone skin, soft and specially colored, cover a metal skeleton.

There's also a guy who appears to change into a werewolf, and a skeleton getting crushed by a tank.

The skeleton has several important fuctions for the body.

In the daylight, the charred skeleton of the roof now hangs precariously beside the empty.

Scientists have determined that the first skeleton they found belongs to a species of human completely new to science.

The soft tissues present in the living animal make the neck skeleton more flexible that is the case in the dry skeleton, not less.

Dinosaurs are famous for the gargantuan sizes some attained, and that's why these minuscule skeleton sculptures are so charming.

But scientists may have a new weapon in the battle against forces that damage the human skeleton.

Geithner has had to make do with a skeleton crew in efforts to heal the economy.

At the moment, it carries a skeleton crew of three, and will do so for the foreseeable future.

The boy's skeleton bears no obvious injuries, suggesting he died of infection.

The adjacent room, with yet another enormous whale skeleton in the center, focused on the preservation of whale.

Now, with all bones in their right places, the skeleton has joined the museum as one more exhibit.

Inside he found the undisturbed skeleton of a top pyramid builders' village official.

Scraps and fragments of dinosaur bone are far more common, and often only the hardest parts of the skeleton become fosslized.

She turns into wood, her branchlike limbs resembling a deadly skeleton.

Mathews never actually took a swipe at the skeleton.

So it was with giddy expectation that the team began to excavate a skeleton of an unknown bipedal hunter.

Inside was a skeleton that wielded two swords, holding them in various defensive postures.

Seemingly supported on one finger of the human skeleton is a tall gold-colored pole or lance.

Oh, the missing link look for a tiny human skeleton cbcca bruce voigt.

We are now operating a skeleton operation and simply trying to hang in there.

Vertebrae were common, but parts of the rest of the skeleton were extremely rare.

General investigating his predecessor's involvement in a scheme to rig a murder trial by faking the discovery of a skeleton.

The skeleton of an infant holds a guttus, similar to a modern-day baby bottle.

The partial skeleton of an oviraptorid dinosaur brooding over a nest.

Skeleton crews run many departments and morale is low.

Instead they hooked up sensors all over his body to make an animated skeleton move the same way he does.

Most of the skeleton was found, including the majority of the.

Schwarzenegger tears back the skin of his forearm to display a gleaming skeleton of chrome and steel.

After three weeks of prospecting, their paltry research funds dwindling, he chanced on a skeleton that brought him to tears.

Scavengers, insects and the trampling feet of herbviores can soon turn a full skeleton into bone shards.

And then y'all could throw the skeleton bones right in the closet do.

Warren's skeleton was kept in a cabinet, but a few brooms had found their way there as well.

Given its degree of completeness-the majority of its skeleton was recovered.

COLLAPSE

Collins

World English Dictionary

skeleton (ˈskɛlɪtən)

—n
1.	endoskeleton See also exoskeleton a hard framework consisting of inorganic material that supports and protects the soft parts of an animal's body and provides attachment for muscles: may be internal (an endoskeleton), as in vertebrates, or external( an exoskeleton), as in arthropods
2.	informal a very thin emaciated person or animal
3.	the essential framework of any structure, such as a building or leaf, that supports or determines the shape of the rest of the structure
4.	an outline consisting of bare essentials: the skeleton of a novel
5.	(US), (Canadian) (modifier) reduced to a minimum: a skeleton staff
6.	skeleton in the cupboard, skeleton in the closet a scandalous fact or event in the past that is kept secret

[C16: via New Latin from Greek: something desiccated, from skellein to dry up]

'skeletal

—*adj*

'skeletally

—*adv*

'skeleton-like

—*adj*

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
Cite This Source

Etymonline

Word Origin & History

skeleton

1578, from Mod.L. sceleton "bones, bony framework of the body," from Gk. skeleton soma "dried-up body, mummy," from neut. of skeletos "dried-up," from skellein "dry up," from PIE base *skele- "to parch, whither" (cf. Gk. skleros "hard"). The Gk. word was borrowed in L.L. (sceletus), hence Fr. squelette,

EXPAND

Sp. esqueleto, It. scheletro. The meaning "bare outline" is first recorded 1607; hence skeleton crew (1778), skeleton key, etc. Phrase skeleton in the closet "source of secret shame to a person or family" popularized 1845 by Thackeray, though he likely didn't coin it.

COLLAPSE

American Heritage

Medical Dictionary

skeleton skel·e·ton (skěl'ĭ-tn)
n.

The internal structure composed of bone and cartilage that protects and supports the soft organs, tissues, and other parts of a vertebrate organism; endoskeleton.
All the bones of the body taken collectively.
The exoskeleton.

American Heritage

Science Dictionary

skeleton

(skěl'ĭ-tn) Pronunciation Key

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The internal structure of vertebrate animals, composed of bone or cartilage, that supports the body, serves as a framework for the attachment of muscles, and protects the vital organs and associated structures.
A hard protective covering or supporting structure of invertebrate animals. See also endoskeleton , exoskeleton.

skeletal adjective

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arboreal Archaeocyathid atomy blue coral bonefish bony fish

Matching Quote

"The bird is not in its ounces and inches, but in its relations to Nature; and the skin or skeleton you show me, is no more a heron, than a heap of ashes or a bottle of gases into which his body has been reduced, is Dante or Washington."

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

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