1. noun
a) 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.
She lost so much weight while she was ill that she became a skeleton.
Syn: ottomy, skeleton tobogganing
See Also: endoskeleton, exoskeleton, hydrostatic skeleton, skeleton crew, skeleton in the closet, skeleton in the cupboard, skeleton key, skeleton staff
2. verb
a) to reduce to a skeleton; to skin
b) to minimize
Wikipedia foundation.