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.

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

Examples from the Web for barebones

From that meeting, they generate a barebones, two-page outline.
This Is How an Episode of Cartoon Network’s ‘Adventure Time’ Is Made|Rich Goldstein|December 19, 2013|DAILY BEAST
Your Barebones, and Hop-an'-jumps, and creatures of that vulgar herd, are quite out of my category.'
Miss Elliot's Girls|Mrs Mary Spring Corning
And old Father Murray is just the dearest old man ever was, and hasn't got a long, solemn face like Mr. Barebones.
The Actress' Daughter|May Agnes Fleming
He was a prominent member of the Barebones Parliament, but after its extinction ceased to exercise any political influence.
State Trials, Political and Social|Various

Barebones' Parliament, a body full of stiff-backed and fanatical Independents, soon proved too restive for its creator.
A History of England|Charles Oman

Idioms and Phrases with barebones

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]

bare bones

plural noun

RELATED WORDS

Origin of bare bones

Examples from the Web for barebones

bare bones