skeleton
(skelɪtən )
Word forms: skeletons
1. countable noun B2
Your skeleton is the framework of bones in your body.
...a human skeleton.
Synonyms: bones, bare bones
2. adjective [ADJECTIVE noun]
A skeleton staff is the smallest number of staff necessary in order to run an organization or service.
Only a skeleton staff remains to show anyone interested around the site.
3. countable noun
The skeleton of something such as a building or a plan is its basic framework.
Only skeletons of buildings remained. [+ of]
...a skeleton of policy guidelines.
Synonyms: plan, structure, frame, draft
4. a skeleton in the cupboard phrase
If you say that someone has a skeleton in the closet, or in British English a skeleton in the cupboard, you mean that they are keeping secret a bad or embarrassing fact about themselves.
On accepting the job, Maya assured her employers that she had no skeletons in the cupboard.
Image of skeleton
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Vocabulary Builder
SKELETON collarbone humerus skull ulna radius vertebrae pelvis breastbone kneecap ribs spine femur fibula tibia Idioms:
have a skeleton in the closet or have a skeleton in the cupboard
to keep secret something which would be scandalous or embarrassing for you if other people knew about it
But everybody's got secrets, haven't they? Everybody has a skeleton in the closet.
Easy Learning Idioms Dictionary. Copyright © HarperCollins Publishers
Collocations:
steel skeleton whale skeleton
He ran into the wind and away from the flames, then stood with other survivors and watched as the wreckage burnt down to its steel skeleton.
Times, Sunday Times
It was a steel skeleton frame lighthouse, as opposed to the brick lighthouses usually associated with the state.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
Extending upwards from the table are quadropod structures, which support smaller beams which form the shell of the steel skeleton.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
In the middle of the 20th century, the wood towers were replaced by steel skeleton towers.
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It was thus given a strong steel skeleton, which would stand the building in very good stead some three decades after its completion.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
It dates back to 1843, when the main attractions were the views and a whale skeleton.
The Sun
Over the course of five months, he’s overseen everything from moving samples into new containers to answering questions about displaying a cheetah video and a whale skeleton.
Smithsonian Mag
The 25-metre blue whale skeleton had been 'hanging forgotten' since conservators assembled it in 1934.
Times, Sunday Times
A complete right whale skeleton was discovered on the seamount in 2005.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
Coastal people there have historically used whale skeletons for constructing their homes.
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Translations:
Chinese: 骷髅, 最起码的员工
Japanese: 骨格, 必要最小限の
- equal right
- equal score
- equal share
- equal sign
- equal significance
- equal size
- equal standing
- equal stature
- equal status
- equal sum
- equal terms
- equal treatment
- equal under the law
- equal value
- equal vigour
- equal volume
- equal weight
- equal weighting
- equal worth
- equanimity
- equate
- equate a term with
- equation
- equation
- equator