skeletal

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   relating to, forming, or attached to a skeleton

   Fear can increase the tonus of the skeletal muscles.

2. 2
   adj

   reduced to a bare framework or lacking detail

   The proposal offered only a skeletal outline of the argument.

3. 3
   adj

   extremely thin, gaunt, or emaciated

   After weeks without food, the animal looked skeletal.

From skeleton + -al. The figurative sense extends the body's supporting framework to any bare structural outline.

Topics