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definitions

bare bones

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR bare bones ON THESAURUS.COM

plural noun

the irreducible minimum; the most essential components: Reduce this report to its bare bones. There is nothing left of the town but the bare bones—a couple of stores, a church, and a few houses.

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RELATED WORDS

basic, core, frame, skeleton, no-frills, undercarriage

Nearby words

  1. bardolatry,
  2. bardolino,
  3. bardot,
  4. bardy,
  5. bare,
  6. bare hands, with one's,
  7. bare infinitive,
  8. bare lymphocyte syndrome,
  9. bare necessities,
  10. bare one's soul

Origin of bare bones

First recorded in 1910–15
Related formsbare-bones, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019
Idioms and Phrases with bare bones

bare bones

The mere essentials or plain, unadorned framework of something, as in This outline gives just the bare bones of the story; details will come later. This phrase transfers the naked skeleton of a body to figurative use. [c. 1900]

The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.