skeleton

Meanings

Noun

• The system that provides support to an organism, internal and made up of bones and cartilage in vertebrates, external in some other animals.
• An anthropomorphic representation of a skeleton.
• A very thin person.
• The central core of something that gives shape to the entire structure.
• A frame that provides support to a building or other construction.
• A client-helper procedure that communicates with a stub.
• The vertices and edges of a polyhedron, taken collectively.
• A very thin form of light-faced type.
• Reduced to a minimum or bare essentials.
• A type of tobogganing in which competitors lie face down, and descend head first.

Verb

• to reduce to a skeleton; to skin; to skeletonize
• to minimize

Related

Similar words

• ottomy , skellington
• backbone

Opposite words

• stub

Origin

• {{picdic
• |image=Human skeleton front arrows no labels.svg
• |width=285
• |height=300
• |labels=
• |detail1=Click on labels in the image
• |detail2=
• From New Latin sceleton, from Ancient Greek σκελετός ("dried up, withered, dried body, parched, mummy"), from σκέλλω, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kelh₁- ("to parch, wither"); compare Ancient Greek σκληρός ("hard").
• The etymology of the term is disputed between two versions.
• From the sled used, which originally was a bare frame, like a skeleton.
• From Norwegian kjaelke through a bad anglicization as "skele".