SKELETON

I. noun Etymology: New Latin, from Greek, neuter of skeletos dried up; akin to Greek skellein to dry up, sklēros hard and perhaps to Old English sceald shallow Date: 1578 a usually rigid supportive or protective structure or framework of an organism, something reduced to its minimum form or essential parts, an emaciated person or animal, 4. something forming a structural framework, the straight or branched chain or ring of atoms that forms the basic structure of an organic molecule, something shameful and kept secret (as in a family), ~ic adjective II. adjective Date: 1778 of, consisting of, or resembling a ~