skeleton

The bones or hard outer covering that support and protect a person or animal.

• The skeleton supports your body.
• They found a dinosaur skeleton in the desert.
• The museum displays several animal skeletons.

Common phrases: human skeleton, animal skeleton, complete skeleton

The basic structure or plan that the rest of something is built around.

• I wrote the skeleton of my essay.
• The report needs details, but its skeleton is clear.
• We kept the original skeleton of the story.

How to use it: the skeleton of something (This outline gives us the skeleton of the report.)

Similar words: framework, outline

Common phrases: skeleton of something, basic skeleton, skeleton outline

A frame that supports a building or another structure.

• The building has a steel skeleton.
• Fire exposed the skeleton of the roof.
• Workers assembled the metal skeleton before adding walls.

Similar words: frame, framework

Common phrases: steel skeleton, building skeleton, skeleton of something

A person who is so thin that their bones are very noticeable.

• He looked like a skeleton.
• After months of illness, she was a walking skeleton.
• The starving men were little more than skeletons.

Similar words: skin and bones

Common phrases: walking skeleton, look a skeleton

A sport in which people slide down an ice track on a small sled, face down and headfirst.

• She competes in skeleton.
• The skeleton event takes place on an ice track.
• He won a medal in skeleton last winter.

Common phrases: skeleton racing, skeleton event, skeleton sled

A computer program component that passes calls between a remote caller and the service that handles them.

• The skeleton receives remote calls.
• The tool generated a skeleton for the service.
• The stub sends each request to the skeleton.

Common phrases: server skeleton, generated skeleton, skeleton code