Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • transitive verb To reduce to skeleton form.
  • transitive verb To outline or sketch briefly.
  • transitive verb To reduce in size or number.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To reduce to a skeleton, as by removing the flesh or other soft tissues from the framework; make a skeleton or mere framework of or from: as, to skeletonize a leaf by eating out its soft parts, as an insect, or by removing them by maceration: particularly said of the preparation of skeletons as objects of study.
  • Milit., to reduce the size or numbers of; deplete: as, a skeletonized army.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To prepare a skeleton of; also, to reduce, as a leaf, to its skeleton.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb To reduce to a skeleton.

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word skeletonize.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.