skeleton

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   the internal supporting structure that gives an artifact its shape

   the building has a steel skeleton

2. 2
   noun

   a scandal that is kept secret

   there must be a skeleton somewhere in that family's closet

3. 3
   noun

   something reduced to its minimal form

   the battalion was a mere skeleton of its former self

4. 4
   noun

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

   At the foot of a pretty big pine, and involved in a green creeper, which had even partly lifted some of the smaller bones, a human skeleton lay, with a few shreds of clothing, on the ground.

5. 5
   noun

   An anthropomorphic representation of a skeleton.

   She dressed up as a skeleton for Halloween.

6. 6
   noun

   A very thin person.

   She lost so much weight while she was ill that she became a skeleton.

7. 7
   noun

   The central core of something that gives shape to the entire structure.

   The skeleton of the organisation is essentially the same as it was ten years ago, but many new faces have come and gone.

8. 8
   noun

   A client-helper procedure that communicates with a stub.

   In remote method invocation, the client helper is a ‘stub’ and the service helper is a ‘skeleton’.

Etymology

From New Latin sceleton, from Ancient Greek σκελετόν (skeletón), the neuter of σκελετός (skeletós, “dried up, withered, dried body, parched, mummy”), from σκέλλω (skéllō, “dry, dry up, make dry, parch”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kelh₁- (“to parch, wither”); compare Ancient Greek σκληρός (sklērós, “hard”).