skeleton

  1. Noun.  (anatomy) The system that provides support to an organism, internal and made up of bones and cartilage in vertebrates, external in some other animals.
  2. Noun.  A frame that provides support to a building or other construction.
  3. Noun.  (figuratively) A very thin person.
  4. Noun.  (From the sled used, which originally was a bare frame, like a skeleton.) A type of tobogganing in which competitors lie face down, and descend head first (compare luge). See Wikipedia:Skeleton (sport).
  5. Noun.  (geometry) The vertices and edges of a polyhedron, taken collectively.
  6. Noun.  An anthropomorphic representation of a skeleton. See Wikipedia:Skeleton (undead).
  7. Noun.  (figuratively) The central core of something that gives shape to the entire structure.
  8. Verb.  (archaic) to reduce to a skeleton; to skin; to skeletonize.
  9. Verb.  (archaic) to minimize.

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This entry was last updated on RefTopia from its source on 3/20/2012.